The Witches of Springfield
by Bloody Simpson Chibi
Disclaimer: I do not own The Simpsons. I just think they're neat.
(Greetings, my fellow enjoyers of yellow people and their funny shenanigans. If you are already a follower, you might be confused by this sudden entry. Well, the truth is I actually had this idea cooking for a while now. I even announced it on NoHomers in my fanfic thread. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't really sure that I was going to work on this story at anytime in the near future as I had lost interest in it personally. But lately, I've been going through a lot of my plot bunnies and came up with an interesting idea for this story regarding how I would upload it.
You see, this story will not be subjected to my usual schedule which hasn't been usual for a few months now. (Stupid IRL issues) Rather, I will upload this story around every Sabbat throughout the year, starting with Samhain or as most folks know it, Halloween. As you could tell by the title, the story is about witchcraft so it seems rather fitting. And since Samhain is considered to be New Year's for witches and neopagans, it might as well host the first chapter. Thus the next chapter will be around Yuletide, the third on Imbolc and so on and so forth.
Hopefully, this will mark the beginning for a whole wave of new stories for all three of my fandoms. In any case, its time to get right on to the story.)
Chapter 1: The Discovery
The wheels on Lisa's bike squeaked as she rode along the sidewalk toward her home. Against her back her backpack moved back and forth, the books and papers within shuffling and bumping against one another. As Lisa rode past the Flanders residence, she noticed her next door neighbor watering his latest batch of petunias. "Hello Mr. Flanders!" She greeted with a friendly wave.
"And a blessed day to you, Lisa." Ned replied in kind. "Aching to go berserk on that homework?"
Lisa giggled. "You know it! See you around."
"Okily Dokily!" Ned went back to watering his flowers.
Lisa sighed as she made it to her own home, knowing full well her father was going to make a meal out of those flowers before dawn. At least she was able to brighten Mr. Flander's day just a little. She pulled her bike into the open garage. Her mother's car was gone, most likely parked in front of a store as its owner shopped for last minute groceries while her father's car sat slightly askew. Lisa sighed again as she pondered just how the hell was her mother supposed to get inside the garage and went to enter the house.
Sure enough, the first thing she heard upon stepping inside was the sound of a raunchy woman screaming about how her apparent baby daddy needed to pay her child support, only to be countered with the argument that a purse dog was not a child. Her father's amused chuckling told Lisa he was in the living room and she walked in to find him thrown on the couch, a bowl of peanut butter and pretzels all mashed together resting on his belly.
"But how else is Princess gonna pay for her Botox!?" The woman on TV screamed.
"Heh! Stupid TV people with their stupid problems. Makes me feel much better about myself." Homer felt the floor before him for his Duff only to frown upon failing to find it. He noticed it was resting at the very edge of the couch, just out of reach of his giant arms. He strained, determined not to break his position of comfort as he reached for the alcoholic beverage. He was already starting to whine as Lisa walked up to him to the couch, picked up the beer and handed it to her father.
"Oh thank you, sweetie!" Homer patted her on the head. "Daddy almost needed to get up." He attempted to take a sip of his beer, only to spill it all over himself. "D'oh!"
"You're not going to Moe's today Dad?" Lisa asked.
"Nah, he said he was closed for today for" Homer prepared his fingers for air quotations. "Renovations." Homer ended his sentence with a mutter "Whatever the hell that means."
"Alright, alright!" Moe rasped as he struggled against his binds. "I'll talk! I'll talk!"
"The time for talking is over." Fat Tony said as he prepped his cue stick for another round of pool. "It's time to play." He pointed the stick in front of a row of balls that were lined directly in front of the bound Moe. He was hogtied with his stomach on the surface of the pool table and desperately flailing around like a suffocating fish. As Fat Tony tapped the balls and sent them rolling toward his teeth, all Moe could do was scream at the impending pain.
"Anyway, what are you doing, sweetie?" Homer asked.
"Well, not to brag but I got the most exciting assignment for homework today," Lisa removed her backpack, opened it up and pulled out a yellow sheet of paper. "A scavenger hunt!"
"Ooh! Just like in National Treasure!" Homer took the paper and grabbed his reading glasses from the table next to the couch. Quietly, he read off the items to himself. "A precious childhood toy. The first drawing you made. A childhood picture of one of your parents or guardians? Ooh! I can help with that one!" Homer reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet and fished from it a single old photo which he handed to Lisa. "There you go. My Mom took that when I was two."
Lisa looked at the photo. It depicted a baby Homer in a highchair, a plate of SpaghettiOs in front of him. Well, a purple plate with a few spots of SpaghettiOs anyway. Most of the actual food was on his face and in his mouth, his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunks. "Aww! You actually look cute in this, Dad." Lisa cooed. "You were quite a messy eater back then, weren't you?"
She looked up to see her father shove a handful of pretzels and peanut butter in his mouth, much of the brown gunk splashing into his face and eyes. He made a horrible chocking sound as he swallowed the load whole and hit his chest a few times. Then he turned to Lisa with a great messy smile, bits and pretzel and peanut butter in his teeth, his cheeks filled out like in the photo. "What was that, sweetie?"
"Uhh...never mind." To distract herself from the horrible scene she had just witnessed, Lisa took the scavenger hunt from Homer's cleaner hand and reexamined it. "Oh! It also says I need to find the oldest object in the house."
"The oldest object eh?" Homer thoughtful scratched his chin. "Well Grandpa's hasn't been out of the nursing home since July."
"Dad, I'm serious!" Lisa whined.
"Oh honey. You know I don't keep track of stuff like that. I'm not a history nerd." Homer pointed up the stairs. "But I bet the attic's got a whole bunch of old crap in it. Maybe you could look there."
Lisa pondered for a moment. "You know, Dad. That's actually not bad advice." She planted a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you!"
"Heh heh." Homer chuckled to himself as Lisa left for the attic. "Still got it!" His attention was stolen by the sound of a chimpanzee screeching from the TV. "Oh! Oh! They're bringing out the Discourse Chimp!"
Lisa was already halfway up the stairs by the time the Discourse Chimp started mauling the host of the show. His agonized screams faded from her ears as she made it to the top and stopped beneath the attic door. She leapt up, grabbed the cord and swung to and fro as Bart had once shown her until at last, the door fell open and the ladder descended. She climbed right up with her assignment in hand and immediately started to cough from the collected dust in the air as she popped her head inside. "Whew!" Lisa stated once she could actually talk again. "I swear this place gets dustier every time I come up here. How is that even possible?"
As there was still a few hours of daylight left, Lisa had no need for the flashlight laying on a box at the edge of the doorway. She simply made a mental note of its whereabouts and began her search for the oldest object. How exactly Lisa was to go about this search, not even she was sure of as she had no way of appraising just how old something was. She decided her best bet would be to simply search for the oldest looking items and bring them all down to sort out with her mother once she returned home. Thus, she started to look through each and every box she could find, digging through broken toys and embarrassing photos in search of something she could show off in class without getting her father arrested again.
The search went on for hours and before Lisa realized it, the Sun was beginning to set. Once she did realize it, however, she reached for the flashlight and switched it on. She shone the light on the collection she had gathered for herself. "Ok, let's see." She reached into the pile and pulled out the objects one by one. "A broken chandelier, a old Radioactive Man action figure with the face paint missing, A Radioactive Man comic with the ending torn out. A doughnut piggy bank that has a bitemark and bloodstains on it, Mom's old hair curlers, and a yellow VHS tape of Christmas Ape Save Mars."
Lisa sat and pondered in front of her pile of potential homework assignments. "This is not going to work as well as I hoped." She sighed as she crossed her arms. "I mean, I know I shouldn't engage in such wishful thanking but I was really hoping to find something...I don't know...cool." She stood up and in her quiet monologue, walked around to the other side of the pile toward the wall. "Maybe something that belonged to one of our ancestors or maybe some sort of grand achievement one of my parents made." She sighed one more time in disappointment as she leaned against the wall. "Guess this attic just can't be that interesting."
Just then, Lisa felt the wall fall away from her. Before she could realize what was happening, she lost her balance and with with a surprised cry, fell on her butt. She hit her head against a jagged, wooden edge and growled in annoyance as she rubbed the fresh wound. Just a scrape. Nothing too deep. Lisa found herself coughing again as fresh dust had been kicked about by what had transpired and it was a good few seconds before she could stop coughing long enough to open her eyes.
Nothing looked out of the ordinary, save for the pile of old trinkets Lisa had made and the flashlight shining its light at her. Lisa accidently looked directly into it and shielded her eyes. She got up, dusted herself off, and went to grab the flashlight. "It looks like we have termites again." She theorized as she picked up the flashlight and shone it before her to survey the damage. "Mom's not gonna be happy about...huh?"
Lisa was expecting to see a huge gash in the wall and maybe even termites crawling all over the edges. Instead, she found a clean and neat compartment, the edges perfectly square shaped. An equally-square piece of wood leaned on the back of the compartment, the door so to speak that Lisa had unlocked without meaning to. "What...the...hell?" Lisa whispered as she slowly approached the compartment. As she grew closer, Lisa's flashlight flooded more and more of the secret space until it was fully illuminated. Ironically, there wasn't much for Lisa to see. Just a pile of ancient rat droppings, a few cobwebs left behind by spiders long dead...
...and a book laying on the floor.
Lisa awed in subtle interest as her eyes fell on the book. She reached inside the compartment carefully, hoping that nothing would pop out from the shadows and attack her. Thankfully, nothing did but she did erupt into another coughing fit as she blew the dust off the book. It was an old thing that hadn't seen the light of day for years. Its cover was bumpy like cobblestone and speckled with azure over black. There was a small tab over the book's page side that fitted over a small violent knob. There was no title on the cover nor on the spine but, aside from the yellowing pages, the book seemed in good condition.
"Hmm. A flashlight's not gonna be enough." Lisa tucked the book beneath her arm and searched for the attic light switch with her flashlight. Once she found it, she tugged on it, illuminating the entire room. She waited a moment for her eyes to adjust, turned off the flashlight and sat down against an open box. "Better do this carefully. Don't want to rip it." Slowly, Lisa pulled the tab free from the knob and let it hang from the side. She pinched the cover against her thumb and index finger and opened the book. There was a single line of text and it had been written in old cursive. Luckily, Lisa was one of the few people from Springfield Elementary, including most of the adults, that actually bothered to learn it.
My name is Neoma Clanderson and this is my diary.
Lisa gasped quietly. "Oh my God." Lisa flipped over to the next page which was filled with far more cursive writing. What immediately arrested her attention, however was the date in which Neoma apparently started using her diary.
October 13, 1690
"Oh my God!" Lisa exclaimed. "I discovered the diary of a girl from the 1600s! How did it possibly get here!?" Lisa turned through a few more of the pages, her curiosity growing more and more with each page. She wanted to know everything about Neoma Clanderson. What she believed. What she enjoyed. What her opinion on women's issues was. Almost all thought of the scavenger hunt vanished as Lisa turned through the pages, catching only glimpses of the actual words written inside.
Night. Forest. God. Fire. Death.
Lisa was just about to get to the middle of the book when she heard her mother's voice calling her from downstairs. "Lisa, it's time for supper!"
As if on cue, Lisa felt her stomach growl. In her pursuit of something interesting for the scavenger hunt and her excitement over the discovery of the old diary, she had completely forgotten her hunger.
"Well, I guess I shouldn't dig into the past on an empty stomach." Lisa put the wall door back in place, switched off the light and climbed down the stairs with book in hand, planning to toss it on her bed before heading for the dining room. Throughout all of dinner, through Grace and her father's bad impression of Reiner Wolfecastle, Lisa's mind remained fixed solely on that book.
"And so it came to pass that the Dawny Boys were forced to return the stolen eggs and get a public flogging."
Lisa chuckled to herself quietly. It was well into the night and everyone else in the house was asleep. Lisa was sitting in her bed as they were and dressed in her night clothes as they were but she would not be sleeping anytime soon if she could help it. The knowledge of the health risk involved with staying up and the fact that she had school tomorrow meant little to Lisa in the wake of her discovery. She had spent the last few hours getting to know the girl named Neoma Clanderson that lived so very long ago. "Forget the scavenger hunt! I bet I can get an A just for doing a report on this!" Lisa giggled as she turned the page.
October 13, 1693
This is the end for me. Reverend Schwartzbaum has accused me of witchcraft on the grounds of his flock contracting the plague. I stood trial today but no one was at my side, not even my parents. This town seems thirsty for a scapegoat to pin their misfortunes on. It's quite the vicious cycle really. They pick someone that doesn't exactly fit their mold, accuse them, destroy them and when the misfortunes refuse to cease, they look for another lamb. I'm afraid this is my turn. I am currently writing this entry from a cell in the jail house. Tomorrow, I will be burned as a witch before the congregation.
Lisa's elation faded with every word she read, leaving her with a heavy sense of dread and sorrow by the time she finished. "Oh my God!"
"I fear not my demise, only mourn it. I've arranged with a very close friend of mine to have my diary snuck out before I go to burn and hidden somewhere safe. It is important that this book survive in my absence, lest the magic of the world be lost forever. I bid thee farewell, old friend.
"Oh no." Lisa sniffled. "So Neoma was caught up in the witch trials?" Lisa was all too aware of the witch trials of Springfield. The popular theory was that the mayor at the time heard about the witch trials going on at Salem at the time and wanted to join in to "get with the in crowd" Only a handful of people were actually accused within that time period but every single one of them burned. Lisa felt sickened as she always did when thinking back to her town's dark history. She had never met Neoma before, never even knew of her existence before this night and yet, as she reread that final terrible paragraph, she felt as if she had lost a friend.
"Well, I suppose that's the way it is," Lisa spoke sadly. "Maybe I can dedicate the assignment in her honor or...huh?" As she was speaking, Lisa absent-mindedly turned the page. As the last entry explained Neoma's impending death, Lisa wasn't expecting to see any more writing on the remaining pages, adding to the tragedy that the diary would never be filled out. But while one page was left blank, the next one held one more paragraph. Even more strange was the fact that the writing did not come with a date this time. For the briefest of moments, Lisa wondered if perhaps Neoma had somehow been acquitted and eagerly read the next page.
As of this moment, the guards are asleep and I sit alone in my cell by candlelight. It is in this moment and this moment only that I will be able to leave behind my secrets. It is important for the future of magic and the future of my coven that this book survive even as I perish. I will now use the rest of this book to record all my arcane knowledge and occult experience. I pray for any who is reading this to not fear nor to judge too rashly for what I am sharing is not the Devil's work nor God's Scourge but the dark miracles of the Forest King and Moon Queen, the sacred mysteries of nature and the Universe itself. From this moment on, this book ceases to be my personal diary and becomes the world's last remaining Grimoire.
Lisa started at the paragraph and the last word written within the paragraph for what seemed like hours. All was quiet, not even the owls were calling nor any cars driving by. She remained perfectly still, her mind trying to process what she had just read. In time, she finally did process it with her scientific rational mind and thus, she only had one response.
"What a load of crap!"
Lisa threw down the book in disgust. "I don't believe this! Either this is some sort of horrible prank or this Neoma girl lost it near the end!" Lisa sighed as she rubbed her hand down her face. "Well, there goes my triple A book report. Guess I'll just settle for the scavenger hunt..." A quiet moment of realization. "Which I completely forgot about thanks to this damn book!" Lisa grabbed her pillow and screamed into it. Out of anger, she started hitting the downed book with the pillow, shoving it beneath her bed. She then held up the pillow as if it was a hapless victim to her anger and growled. Around this time, Lisa's rational mind was starting to kick in and she realized how silly she was being, throwing a fit over an old book. With another sigh, Lisa climbed back into bed and fluffed her pillow. "Well, there's no point in crying over spilled milk. I learned that from Dad's quite literal examples. I might as well just go to bed and get as much of the scavenger hunt done as possible before I go to school." With a yawn, Lisa rested her head on the pillow and soon fell asleep.
The book rested under her bed all throughout the night, the moonlight producing a glimmer as it shone onto the purple knob.
Lisa's scavenger hunt went quite poorly as she only had an hour or so to complete it, despite her best efforts to wake up early. She was only able to bring a handful of items with her to school, including her Grandfather's old Atlanta Braves baseball cap, her newest contender for oldest object in the house. Lisa kept whispering to herself all throughout the bus ride to school that everything would be okay, that she would still remain at the top of the class as she was certain her fellow students wouldn't care to put in nearly as much effort as she did in the assignment.
Unfortunately for Lisa she wasn't factoring in that fact that none of the other students got held up from the hunt by a old book claiming to be magic.
Ms. Hoover seemed far too gleeful in handing the dreaded B over to Lisa for an mostly incomplete assignment. Had any of the other students cared about such things, they might have even made fun of Lisa for her slip-up. Thankfully, most of them were either too tired or focused on some non-school based triviality to even notice Lisa's turmoil.
Besides, Lisa was personally humiliated enough for all the mocking in the world.
"Stupid Ms. Hoover. Stupid Ms. Hoover. Stupid Ms. Hoover." Lisa muttered all throughout the bus ride home. "I don't believe this! A B! A B!" She turned to her fellow passenger on the bus who just so happened to be Ralph Wiggum. "Can you believe it, Ralph? Me! Getting a B!...Me!"
"My mommy says I'm not allowed to eat anymore of her special gummies." Ralph replied. "She says they're for women only."
"...Nevermind." Lisa sighed with her head resting on her fist. In that position she remained until Otto pulled up to her house. She and her brother jumped out with Bart uttering a "Later Otto." in parting.
"Later, Bart Dude!" Otto responded as he closed the doors and drove away, leaving the Simpsons siblings in front of their residence.
"So how did that lame-o scavenger hunt go?" Bart asked. "Was it nerdy?"
"Bite me!" Lisa growled as she stormed off toward the house, leaving a confused Bart holding his hands in mock surrender.
"Geez! I was just trying to communicate!" Bart shook his head. "No good deed goes unpunished." He fumbled around in his pockets and pulled out some fire crackers. "Oh well. Lesson learned. Only bad deeds from now on." The young boy snickered as he hopped in his skateboard and rode off to unleash mayhem on Springfield.
Lisa marched through the front door all the way to her room. She threw herself on her bed and buried her face in the comforter. She cursed and ranted with her face still pressed against the fabric, making her words unintelligible. After a few seconds, she rolled over on her back with a defeated sigh. "A B! How could I get a B?"
But Lisa knew why she got a B. And it was all because of that stupid book.
Lisa suddenly remembered the book and without really thinking of it, she peeked over her bed and felt around for it. Once her fingers grazed it, she pulled it back up and looked it over again. "Stupid book. It's your fault I got a B. Tricking me into thinking you were a legit diary. Wasting my time. Distracting me from..." Then it dawned on Lisa. "Oh God. I'm arguing with a book." Lisa laid back down with a groan. She glared at the book in her hands, her right thumb somewhat digging into the middle of the book's pages.
The section where it betrayed reality for fantasy.
"Oh well...since you already ruined my life, I might as well hear what you have to say. I could use a good laugh." Lisa dug her finger deeper and opened the book to where she was last night. She turned over a few pages and was presented with a whole left page full of writing and a drawing of a fireball on the right page. There was a header above the writing that read: How to Conjure Fire At Will.
"Give me a break," Lisa rolled her eyes. "Is this a grimoire or a DnD playbook?" She turned a few more pages and was greeted with another passaged headed with How To Shapeshift Safely. On the right page was a drawing of a cat with human arms yowling at the Moon. It unsettled Lisa somewhat but she continued to flip the pages, encountering spell after spell after spell.
How To Properly Scry
How to Tame a Familiar
How to Make a Flying Broomstick
How to Speak to the Dead
"Neoma was creative. I'll give her that." Lisa whispered to herself in a unimpressed voice. "Still, it's so sad that she actually wasted the remainder of her diary on something so...so childish!" Lisa flipped back toward the middle of the book to close it for good. She ended up stopping just short of the middle, however, and came across the first spell properly laid out. Like the others, it was spread across two pages, the left page containing the information and the right page containing a illustration.
How to be Reborn as A Witch
Lisa shifted her gaze over to the illustration which depicted a naked girl floating in the air, her arms splayed out and reaching. Two hands were reaching out for her in turn, a masculine one coming from the bottom-right corner of the page and a feminine one descending from the top-left. There seemed to be an aura of light surrounding the girl and her facial expression was one of rapture.
"I'll also give this to Neoma. She was one hell of an artist." Lisa shifted her gaze back to the writing on the left page and read it in her mind. "Oh...so apparently this spell is supposed to make you a conduit of magic and none of the other spells will work unless you undergo this one. How convenient." Lisa uttered a dry laugh. "Way to make yourself seem credible, Neoma." Lisa continued to chuckle as she flipped through the spells again. "So you're really saying if I do this ritual, I'll be able to conjure fire and fly on broomsticks? Yeah, right!" Lisa continued to snicker to herself. Maybe it was the rage she felt for Miss Hoover handing her that B with a giant smile on her face or the fact that someone had filled her locker with soiled soy milk afterwards but at this moment, Lisa was full of venom. She wanted to start a fight somehow, someway or in this case, prove a ghost wrong.
"You know what, Neoma? Let's do it!" Lisa suggested. "I'll try your stupid spell out tonight and we'll see who's really lost their minds!" Lisa began to giggle madly, dropping the book at her knees on the bed. Homer happened to be passing by on his way to the bathroom and noticed his daughter's manic laughter. Of course, in his simple mind, he saw nothing out of the ordinary and smiled softly.
"Aww. A child's laughter." He said as he walked away. "The most beautiful sound in the world as long as you're not home alone."
The Moon hung high in the sky that night. The air was cool but not cold and with everyone else already asleep in bed, Lisa was now in the perfect environment to perform her experiment. She had all the necessary items and all variables had been accounted for. As she took in the cool night air with a pleased inhale, she couldn't help but stand before her tools with hands on her hips and her heart brimming with confidence. As far as Lisa was concerned, she was being a true scientist on the cusp of another significant experiment.
It just so happened said experiment was attempting an old magic spell.
"Part of me feels silly for doing this," Lisa whispered. "But I need this, if only to knock Neoma down a peg for costing me that A. And once I prove this spell is total fantasy, I can donate the book to charity and get on with my life." With this, Lisa cracked open the book to the first spell, removed her Happy Little Elves bookmark and began to read. "Before you begin, you will need the following items. Four candles of blue, yellow, green and red."
Lisa glanced over to the four scented candles she had fished out of the attic, all remnants of a pyramid scheme her mother got roped in. The less said about that, the better.
"Check! Next a small bowl of water."
Lisa checked on the bowl, only to panic as she saw Snowball II lapping up the water. "Ahh! Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!" Lisa chased her pet away from the water, checked to make sure there was enough still left, and continued reading.
"And finally, a clear crystal." Lisa looked up at the single crystal that sat between the bowl and the candles. She had grown it herself with a science kit. "Check! Now the experiment can begin!" Lisa continued reading the text. "For this spell to work, you must be standing directly beneath the full Moon's light. It is also recommended that you be skyclad while partaking in the ritual but it is not required."
"Thank goodness for that," Lisa looked up at the Moon above her, full as her father's stomach after dinner time. She was directly in its icy-blue beam and with a nod, she continued reading. "First, you must place all four candles at least 10 feet from you in the following directions: Green at North, Yellow at East, Blue at West and Red at South. Light each one as you place it in the proper position."
Lisa grabbed the candles as well as the gas lighter she had taken from her father's BBQ grill. Carefully, she placed each candle 10 feet from the beam she was standing at in the correct directions, lighting each one as she did so. Once she was finished, she put the lighter back and continued reading.
"Next, take the bowl of water and the crystal and stand directly in the middle of the candles. Place the crystal directly before you and be careful not to knock it down. Then hold the water up to the moon and let it absorb the light for 10 seconds. You will then speak the following chant:
Oh Great King of the Forest with all your beast and wonders!
Oh Great Queen of the Moon with all your stars and darkness!
Hear me now, your lost child of flesh and bone! Accept my offering and allow me the gift of true sight and power!
Lisa, of course, only read these words in her mind for she was too mortified to read them out loud. "And then you will spill the water over yourself and dance around the crystal beneath the moonlight!?" Lisa read with disdain. "Oh God. I'm I really doing this?" She looked over to the candles she lit and sighed. "I guess I've come too far already." She groaned as she turned back to the book. "Neoma, if this is some sort of revenge for mocking you earlier, I only have this to say. Well played."
Lisa set down the book and grabbed the water and crystal. She stood back in the moonbeam, the candles flickering at all sides around her. She planted the crystal in the ground before her and held the water bowl over my head. "I can't believe I'm actually doing this." Lisa muttered in embarrassment, her cheeks burning. She took a deep breath, exhaled slowly and said the chant in as loud a voice as she could contain within the confines of her backyard.
"Oh Great King of the Forest with all your beast and wonders!
Oh Great Queen of the Moon with all your stars and darkness!
Hear me now, your lost child of flesh and bone! Accept my offering and allow me the gift of true sight and power!"
She spilled the water over herself, shivering at the instant coldness over her bare shoulders. Ignoring the water soaking into her dress or the idea that at any moment, a random drone could fly over and catch her in the most compromising situation of her life, Lisa slowly began to dance around the crystal. It had been a while since her disastrous classes with Little Viki and thus, she was out of rhythm.
At first.
"This is stupid. This is stupid. This is stupid!" Lisa thought as she continued to dance around the crystal. "This is stupid. This is stupid. This is-huh?" Lisa noticed that she was getting...faster. At first, she chalked it up to her getting distracted by her thoughts and tried to focus on her dancing but as she looked down at herself, she noticed her legs jumping and twisting almost by themselves. Her arms were swaying as well, keeping her in balance so that she didn't risk falling. Lisa grew confused, feeling at first that someone or something was controlling her. She tried to slow herself down in a bid for control and nearly tripped over her feet as she did so. At that moment, Lisa realized that she still retained full control of her body after all. Carefully, she willed herself to speed up again and did so without any difficulty.
It wasn't that she was being controlled. Her body seemed to just know how to perform the dance by itself with her mind having to catch up.
As Lisa continued to dance, she felt her heart pounding in her chest. Little by little, her fear and confusion turned into joy and excitement. She could feel every breath she took of the cool night air and synchronized her breathing to her dancing, allowing her to move even faster. Without realizing it, she kicked off her shoes and danced even faster, feeling and embracing the feeling of the grass against her feet. Lisa wasn't sure what was going on but she liked it. She loved it.
She had become completely enraptured.
"This is amazing!" Lisa thought. "I feel like I'm one with the air itself. At one with nature! Yes...it's all so clear to me now. Nature is my father, the Universe my mother! I am at one with everything!"
My child, I hear you.
"Huh?" Lisa snapped out of her rapture and, while continuing to dance around the crystal, she looked around for the source of the strange masculine voice she knew she had just heard. She entertained the idea that perhaps she had just imagined it but there was a certain...weight, a deepness and wisdom to the voice that seemed too real to be born from Lisa's mind. "H-Hello?" She called out. "Anyone there?"
My child, I hear you.
Lisa whined fretfully as she looked around frantically. The only reason she didn't stop herself from dancing was that she was going around and around, allowing her to survey the entire yard for the source of the alien voice. This one sounded feminine and motherly. A part of her felt comforted just from hearing it speak which, ironically, set the rest of her aflame with fear. There were other presences here yet she could not see anyone else in the yard. The flames from the candles seemed to blink like eyes as she continued to dance. "Who's there?" She asked. "Please show yourself."
Our child, we hear you.
Then the candles blew out all at once, shocking Lisa and causing her to trip over her own feet. She landed with a thud on the ground. She stayed for a minute, waiting to see if the mysterious presences would speak to her again. But they went silent. And as Lisa got to her feet, she no longer felt as if there was someone else watching her. She was once again alone in the backyard with only the sound of a faraway owl for company. Lisa waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness before going around and gathering candles. As she went about picking them up, she noticed how...dry she felt. She tugged at her dress and was surprised to find there was no dampness whatsoever. No stains. No chills. It was as if dancing as fast and as vigorously as she did dried up the water.
She also noticed something strange about the candles. They were all only lit for a few minutes yet each of them were completely half-melted as if then had been burning for hours. Lisa checked her watch to make sure that she didn't somehow lose her sense of time and much to her relief, the watch still read a little after midnight. Once she had collected the candles, she turned to pick up the crystal, only to gasp and drop the candles to the ground.
The crystal was glowing a brilliant violet, the moonlight above causing it to glimmer. Gently, Lisa went to pick it up and examined it carefully, her scientific brain racking itself for a plausible answer. "This crystal wasn't grown with the capabilities of changing color," She whispered. "Maybe it's a trick of the light?" Lisa moved it out of the moonbeam but it continued to glow. "Okay. This is officially weird."
Lisa regathered the candles and, with the crystal on top of the pile, she walked back to the book. She placed everything down, grabbed the crystal and the book and made her way to the porchlight where she could read better. She flipped the book open and read the final paragraph on the page she was reading.
"If all went well and you heard the voice of the Forest King and Moon Queen, your crystal should be glowing with the color of their essence, their spirit. Congratulations, you are a witch!"
Lisa turned to the purple crystal in her hand, the starlight glimmering within its spikes.
"This can't be real." Lisa whispered as she paced back and forth in her room. She had already thrown away the candles, stuck the crystal in her junk drawer and thrown the book on her bed. She changed into her nightgown and had every intention to go to bed but for some reason, just couldn't climb under those sheets. She was too worried, afraid, excited and indignant all at once. "Magic isn't real. I've already learned that lesson a long time ago." She continued. "There's gotta be a scientific explanation for the crystal changing color, there's just gotta!" Lisa stopped pacing and looked over at the book. It was just sitting there where she left it, no facial expression to speak of and yet, just by sitting there while she pondered, it seemed to be mocking her.
"Come here, you!" Lisa growled as she went for the book and cracked it open. She turned to the very next page after the Rebirth Ritual, the Fire Ball spell.
"If what this book said is true, I should be able to make a fire ball with only my will power." Lisa read over the page carefully and moved one hand away from herself. "According to this book, all I have to do is channel my intention into the palm of my hand and recite the chant while imagining the fire being conjured." Lisa uttered another dry laugh. "I've got you now, Neoma. There's bound to be some science as to why the crystal changed color but there's no way I can make fire with my mind!" Lisa held up her palm, took a deep breath, and chanted: "To burn my enemies to ashes and coal, I now conjure fire born from my soul!"
"What am I even doing," Lisa thought. "There's just no w-
A ball of fire suddenly erupted from Lisa's palm with a great fwooshing sound. Lisa screamed as she saw the flames lap at her. "Ahhhh! Get it off get it off!" In her panic, Lisa tossed the fire ball from her palm and onto the left curtain hanging from her window. The hungry fire quickly engulfed the entire side of it, bathing the rest of the room and Lisa in an eerie orange light.
"Uh oh.."
Just then, Homer opened the door and poked his head in, his eyelids still half closed. "Lisa, are you cooking something in here. I hear-" He screamed as he saw the flames devouring the curtains. "Ahhhh! Fire!"
He dove his head back out the room and kicked it open fully with a tennis racket in his hands. "Move out of the way, Lisa! Daddy will save you from the fire!" With a high-pitched battle cry, Homer charged at the flaming curtain and started to beat it with the racket, a grunt of effort behind every swing. Before long, however, the flames transferred themselves onto Homer's wooden racket and from there, his blue pajamas. He dropped the tennis racket as he screamed in fear. "Ahh! Save Daddy from the fire!" Homer continued to scream as he ran out of the room, Lisa watching dumbfounded as her father turned toward the stairs. The whole house trembled as Homer fell down the steps. As she heard the sounds of her mother and brother's doors opening, to aid Homer and record his pain and suffering for Youtube respectively, Lisa turned back toward the ruined curtain, one half still smoking. Slowly she lifted up her shaking hand to her face, her mind fighting to come up with a rational explanation.
"Impossible." She whispered. And it was. Impossible to believe and impossible to deny.
(We're going to stop right there if only because that gag with Homer is making me laugh too much to keep writing. In any case, I'm just glad that I was able to think of how to add this story into my schedule in time for Halloween. As I mentioned before, I will only be uploading chapters for this story on the Sabbats so you won't see Chapter 2 until Yuletide in December.
Now as for how the magic system works in this story, it is heavily based on real-life Wicca, the Forest King and Moon Queen taking direct inspiration from the Horned God and Triple Goddess themselves. Relax, I'm not gonna confuse Wicca with witchcraft like every other movie and show does but as most Wiccans practice some form of magic, I thought it would make a good inspiration.
Hope you enjoyed the story, please leave a review if you did, and have a pleasant Samhain. Blessed Be!)