Chapter 8 – Once upon a time
"Once upon a time, there was a quaint little village called Salem. And it was just filled with quaint little Puritans-all-American, hardworking, honest, brave, and true."
The ocean, with its endlessly breaking waves, formed a perfect background as Angela began to pace back and forth.
"These Puritans were filled with pure little thoughts. A few just may have been unhappy with their boring little Puritan lives, all work, no play, dresses up to here and six hours of church on Sundays... And the neighbors, All those neighbors who watched you, gossiped about you, monitored you to make sure you weren't wearing an extra button on your dress or smiling on your way to meeting. You had to be meek in those days, and keep your eyes down, and do as you were told without asking questions. If you were a girl, anyway. You weren't even allowed to play with dolls because they were things of the devil."
Bella was fascinated
"And maybe some of those young girls weren't so happy. Who knows? But anyway, one winter a few of them got together to tell fortunes. They shouldn't have, of course. It was wicked. But they did it anyway. One of them had a slave who came from the West Indies and knew about fortune-telling. It helped to while away those long, dull winter nights."
"But it preyed on their poor little Puritan minds. They felt guilty. And eventually one of them had a nervous collapse. She got sick, delirious, and she confessed. Then the secret was out. And all the other young girls were on the hot seat. It wasn't good in those days to get caught fooling around with the supernatural. The grown-ups didn't like it. So the poor little Puritan girls had to point the finger at somebody else."
Angela held up her own long, tapering, perfectly white tipped finger, trailing it across the seated group like a gun. She stopped in front of Bella. Bella looked at it, then up into Angela's eyes.
"And they did,"
she said pleasantly. She withdrew the finger as if sheathing a sword, and went on.
"They pointed at the West Indian slave, and then at a couple of other old women they didn't like. Women with a bad reputation around the village. And when they pointed, they said..."
She paused for dramatic effect, and tipped her face up to the crescent moon hanging in the sky. Then she looked back at Bella.
"They said... witch."
A ripple went through the group, of agitation, bitter amusement, exasperation. Heads were shaking in disgust. Bella felt the hairs at the back of her neck tingle.
"And do you know what? It worked. Nobody blamed them for their little fortune-telling games. Everyone was too busy hunting out the witches in their midst. The only problem,"
Angela's lips turned into a disgusted thin line. Ariel continued
"was that those Puritans couldn't recognize a witch if they fell over one. They looked for women who were offbeat, or too independent, or... rich. Convicted witches forfeited their worldly goods, so it could be quite a profitable business to accuse them. But all the while the real witches were right there under their noses. Because, you see, there really were witches at Salem. Not the poor women-and men-they accused. They didn't even get one right. But the witches were there, and they didn't like what was happening. It hit a little too close to home. A few of them even tried to stop the witch trials-but that only tended to arouse suspicion. It was too dangerous even to be a friend of one of the prisoners."
She stopped, and there was a silence. The faces surrounding Bella now were not amused, but cold and angry. As if this story was something that resonated in their bones; not a cobwebby tale from the dead past, but a living warning
"What happened?"
Bella asked at last, even though she could see images from her school books in phoenix play in her mind.
"The accused women were killed."
Jerry said quietly.
"One year after the trials ended the real witched fled Salem quietly. So you see, that's how our little town was founded. With just the six members of that coven, and their families. We are what's left of the descendants of those six families. Their only descendants. While the rest of the riffraff you see around the school and the town are the descendants of the servants. The help or of outsiders who drifted in and were allowed to settle here. But those six houses on our street are the houses of the original families. Our families. They intermarried and kept their blood pure-most of them, anyway. And eventually they produced us."
"You have to understand,"
Angela interrupted Ariel
"We may not know exactly what caused the witch hunts but we do know what happened with our own ancestors because we have their journals, their old records, their spell books. Their Books of Shadows."
She turned and picked something up off the sand.
"This was my great-great-grandmother's. She got it from her mother, who got it from her mother, and so on. Each of them wrote in it; they recorded the spells they did, the rituals, the important events in their lives. Each of them passed it on to the next generation."
she handed it off to Bella watching her closely for a reaction as she fingered the worn brown leathered Book.
"We all have talent. We started discovering that when we were really young-babies, practically. Even our parents couldn't ignore it. They did try to keep us from using it for a while, but most of them have given up."
Lucas finished with a small smile.
"That's insane. Salem is in the East. We're at the west, it doesn't make sense"
Bella's logic demanded to be heard. Ariel chuckled and looked at the twins.
"originally Forks wasn't here. It was set in Minnesotta but in our great-grandparents time we were moved here. The small village was taken by a pack of wolves"
"Wolves?"
Bella asked for the first time contemplating the possibility she was dreaming.
"werewolves. our ancestor asked their permission to stay and the village was relocated"
"werewolves"
Bella muttered again chuckling.
"does Santa exist too?"
she asked a little louder than necessary bringing the entire group to a full on belly laugh that chased away the ghosts of the past. but there was an unfinished feeling in the air, as if nobody really wanted to leave yet. Jerry went over behind a rock and pulled out several wet six-packs of diet soft drinks and Ariel promptly went behind another rock and returned with a large thermos.
"It's rose-hip tea,"
she said, pouring a cup of fragrant, dark red liquid and smiling at Bella.
"No tea leaves at all, but it'll warm you up and make you feel better. Roses are soothing and purifying."
"Thanks,"
said Bella, taking it gratefully. She took another gulp of the hot, sweet drink, shivering in spite of herself.
"Here"
Lucas said and placed his dark red leather jacket over her shoulders.
"We're used to the cold; you're not. If you want, we can make a fire."
"No, I'm fine with the jacket. Thank you"
Bella said, tucking her bare feet under her. She looked at the faces around her again and realized she was inside now.
'I'm one of them. A full member of the Clique'
She felt the bubbles of excitement, of exhilaration in her bloodstream again. And there was a deeper feeling, too, of recognition. As if something at her core was nodding, saying Yes, I knew all along.
For the first time in years Angela felt wrong wearing the shift and the jewelry. She looked at the new girl and felt like she now belonged. It was a stupid feeling and she knew it but the presence of Bella made her feel more secure. she watched her smile with Ariel and the moon shone straight into her pendant.
the pendant that had never quite sat right on her. The triple moon phased pendant was meant for their High Priestess. Something she wasn't even though she had tried to be it for their group. She felt good not wearing it.
She looked at Ariel wrapped in her shawl of various blue tones, Luke drinking a root beer and the Capwell twins joking between them.
Her family.
She smiled again and joined them taking a cup of warm tea for herself.
"A lot to deal with at once"
"Yes. But it's exciting, too."
she asked Bella.
"So now that you're a witch, what's the first thing you're going to do?"
Bella laughed, feeling something almost like intoxication. Power, she thought. There's so much Power out there-and now I can take it. She shook her head and lifted the hand that wasn't holding rose-hip tea.
"What can we do?" she said. "I mean, what sorts of things?"
Ariel and Angela exchanged glances.
"You name it. As long as it's doable and you have enough power you can do it"
Ariel said excitedly.
"This is the first Book of Shadows we got hold of,"
Angela said feeling light.
"I found it in my attic, when we were setting up my brothers' nursery. Since then we've found others-every family is supposed to have one. We've been working with mine for almost four or five years, deciphering the spells and copying them out in modern language. I'm even putting it on my computer for easier cross-reference."
"Sort of a Flash Drive of Shadows"
Bella said and Angela grinned.
"I'll show you tomorrow. And it's funny, you know, but once you start learning spells and rituals, it seems to wake up something inside you-and you start coming up with your own."
"Instinct"
Bella said softly
"Yes. we all have it, some more than others. And some of us are better than others at certain things, like calling on the different Powers. I work best with Water"
Ariel passed her fingers in the water of the beach they were.
"The twins work with earth a lot, Luke with fire and I'm good with Air"
Angela finished watching Bella for a reaction. Bella had none though. and then a wet nose the back of Bella's neck. she twirled around to see a huge copper wolf.
What stopped her from screaming was something like heart failure; the shriek got to her throat, and then she actually saw the beast and everything went fuzzy. Her recoiling hand fell limply back. Her lips opened and closed silently. Through a blur and a mist she stared at the liquid brown eyes and the short, silky-bristly hairs on the muzzle. The dog stared back at her, mouth open and laughing, as if to say,
'Aren't you happy to see me?'
"Give her a heart attack, Jake, why don't you?"
