Skyler turned the knob and walked through it.
On the other side was the small, rundown house of the Harmony house. Harmony wasn't their legal name, but one they had adopted and insisted on using.
This was the last of the string of foster homes that Skyler had been sent to. After this, she had insisted on riding out the last of her time at one of the crowded group home facilities.
It had been about this time that Skyler had pulled herself out of her depressive funk, and despite some of her lingering angst issues, she had straightened herself up and focused on her school and life after the foster system.
She'd need a place to live. A job. Money.
All of that had balled up into a near constant ball of anxiety that had lodged itself into her gut and burned.
What she'd gotten, instead of a stable household, was Bear and Clove Harmony. They were very young, not that much older than Skyler at that time, and were retro-hippies crossed with a kind of Psuedo-Wiccans. They burned incense, had tye-dyed everything, believed in free love, the power of crystals and Tarot cards.
And, somehow, they had found out about the "dog incident" and what the girls had said that Skyler had done.
Skyler looked and found herself curled up on the worn brown plaid loveseat, her homework spread out in front of her on the wobbly metal television tray straight from the fifties.
In the distance, there was the sound of the Harmony couple's favorite chimes-and-pipes music and the faintest hint of marijuana that started Skyler's long-standing hatred of the smell.
"There you are," came Clove's voice as she staggered into the living room and flopped onto the sofa next to her, giving Skyler a nose full of the sickly sweet smell of the drug and Patchouli oil. "Look at you, so studious."
Skyler choked back a cough from the smell and kept her gaze focused on her textbook.
"So serious," Clove said with a dopey grin. "How would you like a break? You've been here a week now, and Bear and I were thinking it might be fun to do something."
Young Skyler looked up wearily. "Like what?"
"Oh, come on," Clove said, taking Young Skyler's hand and pulling her to stand so unexpectedly that her school books and papers scattered.
Despite Skyler's protestations, she was practically dragged down the small hallway and to the white shipped paint covered back door with the pane of cracked glass. From there, it was out to the back yard, and Skyler raised her free arm to block the sunlight after spending so much time in the darkened house.
When she felt like she could see without being blinded, Young Skyler dropped her arm and stared dumbfounded at where Bear stood at the far end of the yard holding the leash of a very angry looking large dog. The dog was actively pulling and trying to break Bear's grip on the lead, growls and snarls coming from the irritated animal.
Young Skyler instinctively took a step backwards. "What's going on?" she asked slowly.
"We heard about what you did, dear," Clove said, all but dancing in excitement.
"If you have some actual abilities," Bear said, "We want to see what you can do."
Skyler looked from the woman to the man, a kind of horror dawning on her about the situation.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Skyler said, shaking her head. "What do you think I did?"
"Oh, come on," Clove waved her hand in the air, dismissing Skyler's words altogether. "We read the report in your file. We know what those girls said you did."
Young Skyler said, her voice pitch raising with panic, "I don't remember how it happened or what I did."
"So you admit that you did something," Bear called from his place holding the dog.
"Maybe," Skyler said, desperately trying to think of a way to get through to them. "But I don't know HOW it happened! Please don't…"
"We thought that might be the case," Clove said, hurrying to a corner of the yard a few feet from Skyler. "And, if so, we thought that if we re-created the scene, that you'd be able to do it again and show us what you can do."
"But, why?" Young Skyler asked.
"Because," Bear said nonchalantly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, "Think of the clout we'd have in the coven, having an actual magic-casting witch."
"I'm not a witch!" Skyler cried out.
"Ready?" Bear called to his wife.
"Go ahead," Clove called back cheerily, both adults so lost in their own personal fogged reality that neither were paying attention to Skyler anymore.
"Please don't do this," Young Skyler called.
"One," Bear called out, removing the muzzle.
"Two," Clove called back in a kind of Macabre call and response.
"Please, don't…" Young Skyler called out desperately.
"Three," Bear called, and released the dog's leash.
The dog, having struggled so badly for who knew how long, turned on his tormentor. In the blink of an eye, the dog leapt and attacked Bear instead of going towards Clove, which was their intended target.
Both Skyler and her younger counterpart, turned their faces from the scene, closing their eyes and used their hands to block the sounds of screaming that would still haunt her dreams.
