Thank you for everyone who reviewed the first chapter- it's great to know that people like the idea of this fanfic! This is the first full length chapter, as I mentioned before the first chapter was more of a prologue. Also, I still really need a second opinion on the rating. Please include in your review if you think the T rating is appropriate for this story!
Winx Club: Coven
Chapter 2: Bitchcraft
Bloom's POV
I had learnt about the Salem witch trials in school, but as it turned out pretty much everything I thought I knew about witchcraft was false. On the cross state train journey to New Orleans, once I had finally stopped whining and complaining and realised that someone wasn't just playing a cruel trick on me, Griselda gave me a book to read that she said would explain everything. Most of the girls burnt and hanged in Salem weren't even witches. The real witches, like Abigail Williams herself, were cunning and careful not to be caught. After the trials they fled as far south as they could and that's how eventually New Orleans became the new Salem. The Alfea Academy For Exceptional Young Ladies, the place that would become my new home, was first established as a premier girl's finishing school in 1790 and during the civil war it was converted into a military hospital. When the war was over, it came under new management- the management of the witches. In 1868, a witch named Marianne, an early suffragette and author of several popular children's books, purchased the facility and established a safe haven where young witches could gather to learn how to control their powers. A human misconception was that witchcraft revolved around potions and rituals, when in fact each witch has a different power source, and they all had their own unique abilities based on that. However, in every generation there would be one witch who could master spells outside of their own power source. A witch whose powers centered around nature for instance, would suddenly find herself able to control water, or air. This witch was considered the most powerful, and was chosen as the leader of all witch covens, otherwise known as the supreme. The current supreme, Faragonda, was also the headmistress of Alfea.
According to Griselda, my personal power source was most likely fire. This would certainly explain the burning curtains in my living room, as well as Andy's charred flesh. Typically, a witch's powers first made their appearance during her teenage years at a time when she became particularly emotional. The increased hormones could cause powers to act for themselves beyond the witch's control, hence it was important once they appeared that a witch start to learn how to control them. The excitement of losing my virginity, and then the scare of the mysterious burns, followed by the intense argument with my parents is what caused my emotions and consequently my powers to get out of hand. That is why it was unsafe for me to stay at home with regular people. Apparently if I did not learn how to control my powers I might accidentally burn my house down in my sleep or set Mitzi on fire, although I wasn't so sure I agreed that the latter was a bad thing. Griselda also told me that I would be the only witch in the school with fire powers, other than of course the supreme. There were only four other students there and they were all around the same age- one seventeen like me, two eighteen year olds and one nineteen.
"Are there other witches than the ones at Alfea?" I asked.
"Of course, Bloom. Though there are not many of us left these days. Most older witches who have fully learnt how to use their powers spend their days travelling the world, others work normal jobs and seldom use them. You will meet most of the good witches on various occasions throughout the year."
"Good witches?"
"Yes, witches like myself and our supreme. As there are evil humans, there are evil witches," she explained. "In fact, most of the evil women throughout history, such as Queen Mary the First and Madame Delphine LaLaurie, were actually witches. It is why primitive humans resorted to murdering innocent women. They needed to convince people that they had disposed of the evil, though of course they could never catch a real witch."
"Are there still evil witches? Now I mean?"
Griselda nodded. "I believe there are some in New Orleans. A lot of strange things happen that could easily be explained by evil witchcraft. It is hard for us to be sure though. Evil witches estrange themselves from the supreme so we cannot keep track of them."
The idea of real life evil witches seemed comical to me. Despite the book, I still had a lot to learn.
It took two car journeys and three trains, but eventually after what felt like an eternity with Griselda the black car pulled up to the curb on a suburban street of huge, luxurious houses. One of the suited men, neither of whom had said a single word for the whole journey, rushed around to open the door for me whilst the other fetched my suitcase from the boot. It was nice not to be pushed and dragged by them for once. I climbed out of the car, my legs weak not having been used for so long, and Griselda and I approached the huge cast iron gates of one of the buildings, the silent, suited men on either side of us. A plaque to the side read: The Alfea Academy For Exceptional Young Ladies. Griselda pressed the doorbell, and the gates opened slowly, creaking. We stepped through them, and they closed behind us. The place was absolutely beautiful- a magnificent white, antebellum mansion complete with colonial columns and verandas and a seemingly endless surrounding lawn. It was breathtaking. As we reached the front door, it slowly opened itself and we entered the property. The interior was as elegant as the outside with white walls and wooden flooring. We stood in a large, open lobby with several archways leading off into other rooms and a grand, spiralling staircase up to the first floor.
"Wait here while I fetch Ms Faragonda," Griselda instructed me, and then evaporated into thin air.
Third person POV
When the four young witches at The Alfea Academy For Exceptional Young Ladies- Musa, Tecna, Flora and Stella- were not occupied with classes, parties or boys, they resorted to gathering in Stella's room for bitching and smoking. Stella's room was designated as their hangout because it was the biggest with a king sized four-poster bed, walk-in wardrobe and en-suite bathroom. As the nineteen year old daughter of a world renowned fashion designer and a former model herself, Stella had grown up well accustomed to a life of luxury. When she first arrived at Alfea, she threatened to blind everyone with her sun powers if she was not given the biggest room.
"Doesn't that new girl arrive today?" she questioned, puffing on a Marlboro light.
"Yep," Musa replied as she exhaled smoke from her own cigarette.
"How exciting is it that there's finally going to be someone new around here?" Flora smiled. At nineteen, she was the oldest but newest addition to the group, and even she had been at Alfea for three years. She had grew up isolated in the countryside and therefore not discovered her powers until much later than the other girls.
"I know right," said Stella, stubbing out her cigarette in a delicate, antique ashtray. "About time I had someone new to bitch about. I know everything about you guys, it's so boring I literally have nothing bad to say about you all anymore."
"You are so rude, Stella," hissed Tecna, not even glancing up from her laptop screen. She sat cross-legged on Stella's extravagant bed, typing at an inhumanely fast speed, with Flora laid beside her.
"Oh boohoo, Tecna," she said, sticking another cigarette between her lips. "What are you doing anyway?"
"I'm researching ancient myths and theories about witches with fire powers," Tecna explained. "Did you hear Ms Faragonda say that's what this new girl's power source is? Sounds dangerous."
"Yeah!" Musa laughed. "Apparently she almost set alight her own boyfriend while they were fucking!"
Stella joined in her laughter. "Mind you, Musa. At least she could actually get a boyfriend, and didn't have to use her powers of mind control," she taunted. Musa's power source was music. One of her special abilities was that she could sing a song or play an instrument to hypnotise someone and gain control over their actions.
"Shut the fuck up, Stella," she said. "I could get a boyfriend easily if I wanted one, I just can't be arsed with all of that emotional shit. I take control of their mind, get them to have sex with me and then they leave wondering what the hell happened. I get my fix, no strings attached."
"Using people like that is so unnatural, Musa" Flora frowned.
"Oh yeah, Flora, and bringing things back from the dead isn't." Stella said snidely. "Wake the fuck up, we're witches."
Tecna, always the most practical, reverted the discussion back to the new girl's powers. "According to this legend fire is one of the hardest powers to control. Witches who master fire power are often easily able to master all powers, becoming the next supreme."
Stella rolled her eyes. "Why are you freaking out for, Tecna? This girl didn't 'master' the fire power, she was born with it! And she's a newbie. Her ability to actually use her powers will be practically inexistent."
"Newbie or not, I still think we should be wary of her."
"Yeah, whatever. The new girl obviously isn't the next supreme," Musa said.
"And why's that?" Tecna asked.
"Because I am," Musa replied.
"Oh please!" Stella laughed. "You are not the next supreme."
Musa started to sing: "Stella, put out that cigarette."
Stella stubbed out the hardly-smoked cigarette.
"Now stick it in your vagina."
Stella reached down to push the cigarette up her skirt and Musa sniggered, but Flora interrupted them. "Stop it, Musa!"
Stella regained control of her thoughts and threw the cigarette at Musa. "Ugh you better watch your back you little bitch!" she warned warned with a look of disgust on her face, but Musa just laughed.
"You two are so immature," Tecna said. "How can you not be concerned about the new girl's powers?"
"I'll tell you what, Tecna. How about we give the new girl a good old, witchy welcome," Musa proposed. "Give her a good scare. See how she controls her powers with an adrenaline rush."
"Are we talking a good old sacrifice to o' dark father?" Stella asked, suddenly on good terms with Musa again.
"Of course."
"I'm in. What about you, Flora?"
"Sure, as long as we go easy on her."
The three of them all turned to look at Tecna.
"Oh alright," Tecna sighed. "But only because I want to analyse her powers. Not because I approve of your childish games."
"Let's do it then!" Musa said, and the four of them proceeded into Stella's gigantic, walk-in wardrobe.
Bloom's POV
I had been stood in the lobby alone for almost ten minutes. The suited men had vanished with Griselda, although I doubted that they would have been good company anyway. The mansion was eerily silent- I could hear my own pulsing heartbeat in my ears.
I was startled by a sudden noise and I turned around quickly. Through the archway to my right, I thought I caught a glimpse of a person walking across the room. I had been told to stay here, but I had already been waiting ages. What if the mysterious figure was one of my fellow students? Surely she would know Ms Faragonda's whereabouts or could at least help me? I walked through the arch into what appeared to be a living room. There were a few white sofas and the walls were decorated with hundreds of paintings of different women. A fire crackled in a huge, stone fireplace. I kept walking and found another archway to my left. I figured this must have been where the person walked through, and I followed. I was now in a dining room, and ahead of me was another archway that lead through into a kitchen. There was nobody else in the room, but I walked around it admiring the decor. As I ran my fingers over the smooth, wooden table I saw movement in the kitchen through the corner of my eye, so I hurried through.
"Hello?" I called. This room was also empty of people, but I heard a noise behind me. Confused and my heart racing, I spun around and caught sight of two crouched figures running through the dining room. I ran back through and followed the direction they had gone in, and found myself back in the lobby. I slowed my pace, taking time to look carefully through each archway to see if anyone was there.
I screamed when two masked figures wearing black cloaks jumped in front of me. I stepped backwards, gradually turned around and saw another two hooded figures rushing down the stairs towards me. I screamed again, and tried to run back past the first two figures, but they grabbed ahold of me. I struggled to break free, and the two behind me caught up and put a sack over my head. Unable to see, I was dragged along and thrown onto a table. Three of the figures held me down whilst the fourth removed the bag from my head. Then it picked up a scythe and held it above me.
"O' dark father," the figure began. It's voice was distorted due to the mask, but I could still identify it as female. "We offer this flesh up to you. Blood, life and all."
"Get the hell off me!" I screamed pathetically as the mysterious woman rapidly brought the weapon down towards my face. I felt the same heat I had felt when I had been with Andy and heard someone shout "ouch!". I was released from their grasp and the scythe slammed on the table right next to my ear, the noise painful. I sat up, panting. The four figures stood in from of me.
"Jesus, Sabrina," said the ringleader as she pulled off her mask. "We're just messing with you." She was a tall, skinny girl with long golden blonde hair, sun kissed skin, brown eyes and full lips.
"Guess you really are powerful," said one of the girls who had been holding me down as she took off her own mask. She was of average height, blue-eyed and pale with long hair such a dark shade of blue I wondered whether it could be natural. She had full bangs and a nose ring.
"I told you," said another figure as she removed her mask as well. She was the shortest of them, with pale skin and a cropped pixie haircut in a brilliant shade of pink- I figured this colour couldn't be natural.
"I'm Flora, hi," said the final girl to take off her mask, smiling. She was brunette and tanned with piercing green eyes.
"I'm Bloom," I responded, staring at them in disbelief. They were all so incredibly beautiful.
"Stella," said the blonde.
"Musa," said the blue haired girl.
"Tecna," said the girl with the short, pink hair.
"And now I'm bored again," complained the girl named Stella.
"So this is all of you then?" I asked, remembering that Griselda had said there were only four other students here.
"At the moment," answered a mysterious voice, and we all turned around. Griselda had returned; accompanied by a man wearing a white suit with hair down to his waist and a woman in a long black dress with snow white hair.
"Fiona Faragonda," she introduced herself. "Head mistress and your reigning supreme."
I was stunned. I could could actually feel Faragonda's powerful aura emitting from her and it made me afraid to speak. The girls sniggered.
"Come on, Bloom,"- I was surprised to hear her say my name as I was yet to introduce myself- "Palladium will show you to your room, and then we will meet for midday gathering." She and Griselda then disappeared as Griselda had done before. The long haired man reached out his arm as a gesture to me, and I looked around nervously at the girls. They all gave me a look with their eyes as if to say "Go!" so I got up and walked over to him. He linked my arm and then lead me out of the room, into the lobby and up the stairs.
"So who are you then?" I asked.
"I'm Palladium, a professor here at Alfea," he said. His voice was calm and soothing.
"Do you have magic powers?" I queried, wondering how a man could teach witches.
"Yes," he smiled. My naivety was obviously amusing to him.
"Oh. I didn't know wizards were a thing too?"
This made him chuckle. "I'm not a wizard, Bloom. I'm as much a witch as you are. 'Wizard' is a very human term."
"Oh... sorry." I felt so stupid about how little I still knew and blushed a deep shade of red.
"It's okay," he laughed. "We expect your knowledge to only be of Salem standard after growing up in a human household."
My new bedroom was on the second floor of the mansion. Like the rest of the home, its walls and flooring were white. It was spacious with very little furniture- only a single four-poster bed, bedside cabinet, chest of drawers and a small armchair. There were framed photographs of people I did not recognise on the walls. A door lead into a large bathroom, which I could see I must share with one of the other girls as there was another door on the other side of it.
"I'll let you settle in alone," Palladium said. "Be down for your first lesson in half an hour." He left and closed the door behind him.
I wasn't sure how I was meant to get all my stuff unpacked in just half an hour, so I decided to leave it for later. I checked the view from my window- I could only just see the house next door through all the greenery- and tested out my bed- very comfortable. After a while I heard someone in the bathroom, so I went to find out who my new roommate was. The brunette, Flora, was applying a coat of pink lip gloss in the mirror.
"Hi, looks like we're neighbours now," she beamed.
"Hi." I found it awkward to speak to her. I'd barely just discovered I was a witch and here I was living right next to another one.
"Don't look so frightened, sweetie. You're lucky you got me. Tecna's a bore and all Stella and Musa do is smoke and bitch. I'm way nicer."
"Don't you?" I asked. "Bitch I mean?"
"Nope," she said. "Well, not nearly as much as the others anyway. And I promise I won't tell if you ever bring any boys over." She winked at me.
"Thanks, but I think my boyfriend just broke up with me."
"Well then all the more reason for you to bring someone handsome over then, sweetie! Are you coming to midday gathering?"
"I have to, don't I?"
"Well yeah," she laughed. "You can come down with me."
Midday gathering was held in one of the smaller rooms of the mansion around a coffee table, atop of which there were pretty little china cups and a teapot. The three other girls were already sat around the table with Faragonda when Flora and I got there. I sat down in one of the armchairs between Flora and Stella. So far being a witch was a lot less scary than I thought.
"It's going to be an easy one today, girls, since Bloom is a beginner," said Ms Faragonda as she leant back in her chair and clasped her hands together. "We will be discussing our heritage as witches."
Musa and Stella groaned.
"But Ms Faragonda," Tecna objected. "I already know everything about our heritage. Why do I have to be here if we're not learning anything new?"
I was personally relieved that the class would be easy. There was still so much stuff I was yet to learn, not to mention the fact I still didn't know how to use my magic when I actually wanted to.
"Now, Tecna. If you really knew everything about our heritage then you would know that regular gatherings strengthen the coven and spending time in close proximity to other witches, particularly the supreme, increases your magic. More importantly we have a new witch with us, and we must give her a warm welcome to the coven."
"I might increase my magic more if I actually got to use it," I heard Tenca mutter under her breath.
Ms Faragonda then turned to look directly at me. "Bloom. I am sure you already know that every witch is born connected to her own unique power source. With this come several gifts. Flora for example, gets her powers from nature. She is able to revive plants and even some small animals back from the dead."
I glanced over at Flora, who was smiling widely as usual.
"Musa's powers come from music," Ms Faragonda continued. "She is able to use mind control through her enchanting melodies. Stella is gifted with the power of the sun, and therefore will always be an epitome of health and beauty."
Stella flicked her long hair dramatically to this.
"As the sun gives life to all living things, Stella can use her powers to either give or take life force from other beings. Tecna's powers are somewhat revolutionary. She is living proof that we still do not know everything about our kind. Her powers come from technology, which obviously has not always been around, therefore she shows us that as society and culture develops, magic develops as well. She can control inanimate objects with her mind, likewise her own mind is like a computer. Once Tecna learns something, she never forgets."
"In other words, you better watch what you say to me," Tecna said matter of factly.
"Yeah. And don't piss her off too much," said Stella. "She has a tendency to throw shit at you." Right on queue, a book came hurdling across the room at Stella's head. She leapt out of her seat and lunged across the table at Tecna and the other girls started laughing hysterically.
"Enough, girls!" Ms Faragonda yelled. Tecna and Stella, who had been wrestling, let go off each other sat back down calmly as if they had just forgotten what happened. "Bloom, your powers seem to come from fire," Ms Faragonda went on, completely dismissing the interruption. "Typically witches with fire power are immune to fire themselves, which makes burning them at the stake somewhat difficult," she chuckled. The joke made me feel uneasy.
"Now, a talented witch can master her own power and sometimes one other gift. A witch with powers of water might also be able to use magic associated with air, for example. But in each generation, there is one woman who will embody countless gifts. She is the supreme."
"And that's you," I said.
She nodded. "But I am also a teacher. I consider my main purpose here to help you identify your gifts and teach you how to use them."
"She means to suppress them," Tecna said sarcastically.
Ms Faragonda gave Tecna a warning look. "Not suppression. Control."
"She thinks it's still the 1600s," said Musa.
"No. Back then our kind understood the dangers. They kept their powers reserved. Today, we are much more careless. Our lives, our very existence, is always at risk from witch hunters."
"Oh please," snorted Stella. "Witch hunters don't exist anymore."
"Until yesterday, Bloom thought witches didn't exist," Ms Faragonda pointed out coolly. Nobody had any retorts to this- she had made an excellent point. "We must be wary of witch hunters, or we will face extinction." She stood up. "Todays gathering is over," she said, then vanished.
I peered around at the other girls, unsure of what to do now.
"Ugh," Stella rolled her eyes. "Such a drag. As if witch hunters are real."
"They could be, you know," said Tecna. "If we still exist, there's no reason witch hunters couldn't."
"Nah people are way too realistic now," said Musa. "Nobody believes in witches anymore."
"Exactly!" Stella agreed. "So there's no reason we should suppress our powers. People will deny magic exists even if it's right before their eyes." She pulled out a packet of cigarettes and offered one to me.
"No thanks," I said, shaking my head vigourously. The taste of cigarettes reminded me of Andy.
"Well can you light this for me?" she asked through her teeth as she placed one in her mouth.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"You've got fire power, girl. Light the cigarette for me."
"I don't know how," I said, embarrassed.
"It's easy," Flora said, reaching out to put her hand on my shoulder. "Just concentrate really hard about lighting the cigarette, and it will happen."
I didn't want to make a fool of myself, but something told me these girls weren't just going to let me walk away without showing them some kind of power. I focused on the cigarette between Stella's lips and zoned out so I couldn't hear anything.
"Light the cigarette, light the cigarette," I thought. Nothing was happening. Stella was watching me, a smirk forming at the corner of her mouth. I shut my eyes so I couldn't see her, but pictured the cigarette in my mind. "Light, light, light..."
"Hmm, not bad," I heard Stella say. I opened my eyes. The end of her cigarette was now glowing red. "A little slow, but you did it."
I couldn't help but smile- had I really just used my powers to light a cigarette and not accidentally set Stella's hair on fire at the same time?
"So, Bloom," said Musa. "Tell us exactly how you ended up here."
"Yeah. And don't spare all the gory details," added Stella.
Something about the tone of their voices and the way they all looked like they were stifling laughs told me that they already knew what had happened. Faragonda and Griselda knew, so I guessed they must have overheard from them. I didn't really want to talk about the incident with Andy, but for some reason I trusted these girls. Sure, they were all horrendously bitchy, but they were the closest thing to a family that I had now.
"I was having sex with my boyfriend for the first time," I began. "It was pretty hot- he literally got his dick burnt."
Stella and Musa sniggered. Now I was saying it out loud, it was actually pretty funny.
"Then when we went downstairs, my parents were just coming back in. They were meant to be going to this concert but they left the tickets at home. We had a huge argument, and I accidentally set our curtains on fire. Next thing I knew I'm being whisked off here by Griselda."
"That is brutal," said Musa.
"Classic," laughed Stella.
"So how did you all end up in here?" I asked.
"My agent wanted to send me to rehab," said Stella. "But no way was I going there with a load of junky skanks, so I staged a little accident. Griselda read about it in the papers and realised I must have magic powers, so she came and got me. And now I'm here with a load of skanks instead."
"I revived a dead bird at my little sister's birthday party," said Flora. It was the first time I had seen her look sad. "My grandma saw it. I come from a very confined, religious part of the country. They wanted to burn me at the stake..."
"What the fuck?" I said.
"Yeah," she sighed. "Luckily, Faragonda felt something, like all witches are connected or something. She felt my distress and came and rescued me."
"I was bullied pretty badly in high school," Musa said. "One day this bitch was giving me a pretty hard time, and I just wished she was dead so I could be at peace. She picked a knife up and just slit her throat in the school cafeteria... it was horrible. The newspapers went crazy, nobody could understand why she did it, you know? She was pretty and popular and all that crap. Griselda came and found me and of course it turned out she didn't kill herself... I made her do it."
"Wow..." I said, realising I actually had it pretty lucky.
"It's fine though," Musa said. "The bitch had it coming."
"And you, Tecna?" I asked, hoping her story would be less grim.
"This girl at my college and I were competing for a physics scholarship. When she got it and not me I made a projector fall from the ceiling and land on her. She was paralysed and unable to go to university, so I would have got the scholarship if I hadn't been dragged here."
"Well, shit," I said. These girls, except for Flora, were all so bitter and unstable. What if I did something to piss them off? Would I end up like the others?
"Anyway," said Stella. She was tapping away rapidly on her phone. "Do you own any clothes that don't come from a thrift store?" she asked me, eyeing my outfit up and down. Even I had to admit it was poorly put together. Everything had happened so fast last night I just pulled the first things on that I saw- the stripy crop top I wore for Andy and an old pair of ripped, boyfriend jeans. I also didn't know if my mom had packed me anything decent to wear.
"Not really..." I replied. "Why?"
Stella sighed. "You can borrow something of mine. There's a party tonight. Just got the text from Brandon."
Thank you for reading! I hope this chapter covered everything you need to know, but if you have any questions feel free to leave them in your review and I'll answer them in the next chapter! Remember to favourite this story to be instantly notified when I update!
xxMazzy