"Oh my god." Vivien muttered, as she stood up from the couch. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around her son in order to protect him.
"Who are you?" Ben asked, clearly just as startled as his wife. "We're witches," began a woman who looked just like Billie Dean. "We understand that you may be in quite shock at the moment, but we are here to help."
Violet stared at the three figures standing in front of her family, paying particular attention to the girl which looked just like her. She knew it had to be true; these people had to be witches. How else could they have appeared inside 'their' house out of nowhere? How else could an exact copy of herself be looking her straight in the eyes?
The door opened, as Tate entered the house. He was wearing a suit? Why would he be wearing a suit?
"What the hell is this?" a voice came from the left; this time the real Tate. " This is bullshit," Violet began, glancing at her ex-boyfriend for only a second. "I'm leaving."
Violet moved and—
"What the hell?" she asked, gazing at her feet which appeared to be glued to the ground. "It's mind control, bitch." said one of the girls, giving Violet a slight smirk.
"Queenie," said Billie Dean's doppleganger, putting up a hand to single 'stop'. "That's enough. The girl is confused, and she has every right to be. My name is Cordelia Goode, the leader of this coven and the supreme of this generation. I am hoping we can make some arrangements as to when we do the spell which will free you from this place. I was told by Billie Dean that no ghost in this house likes being stuck in here."
"How have we never heard of you before?" Vivien asked, now obviously more comfortable.
"Well, at the time you, were alive, we were a very secretive group. Hardly anyone knew about us."
"Why?" Violet asked, still shaking.
"Witch hunters, along with a few other enemies." Cordelia said, taking a seat.
"And what are your names?" Ben asked, also sitting down.
"I'm Zoe Benson. That's Kyle Spencer, my boyfriend. Once again, that's Queenie."
"Of course they're together." muttered Tate, looking down as every eye in the room glanced towards him. Violet winced at the memory of their breakup. "Oh," Cordelia said, looking from Tate to Violet. "I'm sorry."
"And of course they can read minds." Tate said, walking away. "Don't go, Tate," Cordelia said after him, as he turned back. "We need you to listen. This is important."
Without a word, Tate sat down and listened to what The Supreme had to say next.
"There is a book full of curses for witches. We figured this house has been cursed with an excessive amount of negative energy. We are unsure of the name of the curse, it seems to be very old; one of the oldest. With some practice, we realised that this negative energy always works it's way around on making the life of the living—and the dead—harder. After we did some research, we found a spell which can take the negative energy out of here. Remove the curse."
"So then do it," Violet said, getting up. "Do the spell."
"It's not so easy," Billie Dean said, taking out a cigarette which Cordelia lit for her without difficulty. "Life outside this house for a ghost is quite different. The living won't be able to see you, although they can feel your touch, your energy. If you lift something, living people will only see the object, not you. The only time you can be seen is on Halloween."
"What about communicating? Can they hear us?" Vivien asked. "No," Billie Dean answered, crossing her legs. "The only ones who will be able to see and hear you are mediums and witches. Along with other ghosts."
"I don't know. We'd have a hard time adapting to all that." Ben said, putting a hand through his hair. "So would every other ghost. I just hate being stuck here, not being able to see what's going on in the world. We could do whatever we want, except without interacting with the living. It would be better than this shit!" Violet said to her father.
"She's right, Ben," Vivien said, as Ben nodded. "We need to get out of this place."
"Alright," Ben said, focusing on the witches in the room. "When can we do the spell?"
"What spell?" came a familiar, annoying voice. Hayden was standing in the middle of the room, looking frustrated, as usual. Everybody remained silent, until Cordelia broke the silence.
"You can tell her. Every ghost in the house needs to take part in order for the spell to work. We will come back tomorrow, ready for the spell. Make sure you discuss this with every one of them."
With those words, the witches were gone.
Getting every ghost to agree took quite a while, but it was worth the effort. Nora and Charles agreed to take care of Thaddeus, making sure he wouldn't hurt anyone. Of course, there were other evil spirits in the house, and the Harmons were sure that letting all of them out would be a huge risk.
Violet took another cigarette out of the pack Billie Dean gave her, groaning as she realised it was the last one left.
She stared at the clock; it was 1:15 am, of course she could stay up all night since
ghosts didn't actually need sleep. She heightened the volume of the music playing on her iPod, tapping her feet along with the rhythm.
She closed her eyes, letting a small smile form across her face. Music is amazing. Violet thought, chuckling.
She slightly lifted her eyelids but reopened them when her brain processed the figure standing beside the door. Her eyes grew wide, although the rest of her body remained completely still.
Tate.
Locking eyes, neither of the adolescents spoke. Tate stepped forward, his expression surprisingly calm, gentle. He almost looked like a little child trying to be good for its mother.
After minutes of silence, Violet finally broke the eye-contact and gave a little sigh, her hands running through her blonde hair.
"Are you afraid?" Tate asked, remaining in his calm demeanor.
"A little." Violet admitted, feeling no need to lie. "From me?" Tate asked, once again stepping forward.
"Yeah." she muttered, not looking at Tate's face.
"I'm sorry," he said, his voice filled with more emotion this time. "I don't want you to be scared. I just want to talk. Not persuade you or anything, just talk. Openly without restrictions."
Violet though for a little, then answered.
"Okay."
She finally glanced at Tate, who looked somewhat relieved. "I'll sit." he muttered.
Violet nodded, feeling tension that neither of them showed. one this was sure though: they weren't angry or vengeful. They must have matured.. in their own strange ways.
"So, what do you plan on doing after you get out of here?" Tate struggled to not make this awkward, and Violet couldn't help but smile. Shit. she thought, keeping her annoyance to herself.
Tate grinned sheepishly as overflowed inside of him. Seeing Violet happy was a major weakness of his.
"I love it when you smile." he said, not feeling ashamed.
Violet ignored his kind words and answered his question. "I don't even know. I'm just glad to be able to leave." she said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, me too," Tate said before letting out a huge sigh. "I'm being completely honest with you right now Violet, so I might as well just say it… I have no clue on what I'll do without you after we get out. It scares me, you know?"
"Ugh, there's nothing I can do, Tate. You've got to move on."
"Move on? I can't just move on, Vi. You're.. you're the love of my life. And I screwed our relationship up so bad." Tate said, his voice breaking.
"I can't be sure on whether you are deceiving me or not. You could easily be saying this shit and acting like this to get me back and own me, not because you love me. And d—"
Tate cut her off, taking a firm hold of her shoulders as tears streaked his cheeks.
"Don't ever doubt my love for you, Violet! Don't you ever.." he yelled, muttering the last lines as he pulled the girl he was holding into his arms.
Violet couldn't come up with an answer. She stayed in Tate's arms, eventually beginning to feel tears form in her eyes as well.
They stayed like this for a while, laying on top of each other and cuddling, with Tate occasionally whispering sweet nothings into Violet's ear.
Violet didn't know why she was doing this. She wasn't getting back together with him, but she needed this at that moment. She craved it.