FENIX

I could be at home watching a movie or playing a video game, but not, this would be a very boring Friday night for a brave guy like me, especially if you have the opportunity to follow a coven of demonic witches to see what they are hatching in the middle of a dark and chilling forest.

The truth is that I was expecting some basic ritual, or maybe a little incantation. The typical plan for a group of teenage witches, you know, ‘light as a feather' or something similar. But not, they preferred summoning demons.

I wanted to run away before Rosemary and her posse noticed me, but my inner voice said not. The spell was clearly a bad craft. I could see the magic energies fluctuating strangely. A correctly crafted spell has this harmony-like light dancing to the rhythm of the music. If this spell was dancing to some rhythm, it would be heavy metal. 

I looked at the pentagram the best that the leaves allowed me. The corner with obsidian was missorienting. It was not an uncommon error but it was part of these kinds of small errors that could destroy dimensional barriers in dangerous ways, or kill everyone involved. In any case, not saying anything would be rude.

I came out of the bushes, "Hi guys, it's awesome. Do you make wiccan? pretty cool." I didn't have a lot of options for excuses to use better than that. "But, I mean I don't know a lot about this, but the corner isn't to the north, is it?"

My grandmother would have killed me for meddling in supernatural affairs, especially in witches' affairs. But that was the right thing. I guess. Well, I didn't have the option to run from the moment I stopped hiding, so what was the point of worrying?

Rosemary Booth, student council president and the perfect representation of the white redhead mean girl of a small town in Pennsylvania. Beautiful and dangerous and to my misfortune, my classmate since sixth grade. Santo Hills was small, but not to make the coincidence of being together in almost every class a clear proof that I was cursed.

Rosemary made a bun with her long red hair. She didn't say anything to me or even look at me. It was like I wasn’t there—a.k.a normal day. She approached Kevin with a hard-to-read face. 

Kevin, I think that his family was from the Dominican Republic. Black skin, and a dark brown afro. He looked like he wouldn't hurt a fly in his life. I mean, I met him in my Spanish class in the cultural center and he was really nice. And not, I’m not saying ‘he’s nice to be a witch’ or something similar. He’s a really good kid, although summoning demons subtracted points from him. 

His hands shook while his eyes remained still pointed to nothing. He was almost incapable of holding the small dagger in his right hand. The dagger that he had probably used to cast the concealment spells. Ironically, the spells that I had used to follow them.

"You had only a job," Rosemary said. Kevin's muscles tensioned while the trembling of his hand passed to the rest of his body. A natural reaction to the tone used for Rosemary. She took the dagger from his hand without any reaction from the boy. "I knew you weren't ready, but you kept insisting."

"I'm sorry Rose..." She nailed the small dagger to the boy's right side before he could say something else. 

Kevin exhales all the air from his lungs, his eyes open completely, and his pupils dilated, turning his light brown eyes into an unnatural black. Drops of blood started to slide down the edge. 

It was disgusting. I felt like vomiting but I restrained myself. He was in pain but he tried to stand straight and kept an iced expression, hiding his fear. 

I felt sorry for him. I knew the dagger wouldn't do him permanent damage. Witches have a good healthcare system and as far as I knew it was cheaper than my parents. I could imagine this kind of behavior like the witch equivalent to pushing your brother because of a fight. Not nice but not serious. However, I couldn’t help but empathize. If that danger had been stuck in me, it would have been that kind of traumatic event that wouldn't have let me sleep from time to time.

Juri and Mako, the rest of Rosemary’s pose, just stared at the whole thing like it was the most normal reaction when a friend disappoints you. I turned my attention to them so as not to have to see the wound. They looked so similar that I couldn’t stop thinking that they were sisters —Long black hair, blue eyes, small nose— I guessed they were. 

But, who knows? After all, they were bluish. They went to the snooty private school of Blue Lake Academy. And they had this something impossible to explain which let you know that they belong to the same circles. Not witches' circles per se. Rosemary, for example, had her unique style.

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"Juri,” Rosemary said. “Use a funnel weaver with a sewing spell to close the wound before he passes out, and Mako, you call Atticus. We'll need him."

Juri approached them warily. "Rosemary, but the sewing spell leaves a scar," she whispered.

Rosemary squeezed Kevin's cheeks with a hand like grandmothers of TV movies. "I know. It's a reminder. If he learns the lesson, maybe I'll let him remove it. Besides, it gives him a mature look which was his objective after all."

Rosemary grimaced at Kevin who was holding back tears while Juri put the small spider in his wound. The second creepy thing of the night and my gust said that it wasn’t going to be the last.

Rosemary turned back to me, she took a bottle of white seeds, maybe seeds of dandelions, from a My Little Pony makeup case and dropped Kevin's blood in. She whispered some words, "Κοίμησαι, κοίμησαι μικρό ζωάκι". It was some kind of spell that I didn’t know.

I made my best fear face and started the performance, "I'm sorry, I don't see anything. Please, I want to go home. Never will I say anything," I stammered in a brilliant acting performance, showing that my theater teacher was wrong about my acting skills. Fuck you, Mr.Gomez, I deserved that role as tree number three.

She looked into my eyes, it was very annoying. It was almost intimate. I mean If you wanna stare at my eyes in that way you could invite me on a date first. But she continued with his role of a femme-fatale witch. At least, it wasn't scary. I mean, if I was a normal dude without knowledge about the supernatural world, it would be fucking scary, but if you knew what it’s the matter, there wasn't a reason to be afraid, in the worst scenario they would erase my memories. 

"That you are so scared to escape is thankfully. I am not in the mood for a hun." She grinned with his pearl white teeth.

She took a handful of dandelions, and I could see a brown light on them. I supposed that it was a sleeping spell but not the exact sleeping spell that she was using. I covered my nose and mouth and breathed out strength until I felt a bump in my inner ear. 

Rosemary had blown the dandelion over me. I couldn't resist anymore and began to breathe again. I'm not sure if I swallowed any dandelions but I started to feel sleepy in a few seconds. I lay on the ground, my body was heavy and I had a sensation like I hadn't slept in two days.

She put her hand on my cheek. "Fenix, you shouldn't have poked the bear," she said and I passed out.

ROSEMARY

Fenix fell asleep soon after the spell. I didn’t know why he breathed so weirdly when I used the dandelion on him, but it worked very well. I let his head rest on the ground carefully. 

Fenix was a very weird and annoying classmate, he always looked at me like I had something strange on my face, but I preferred not to hurt him unnecessarily. More problems.

"Juri, have you finished with Kevin?" I asked.

"I think the spider is starting to close the wound," she said insecurely. I was surrounded by incompetents. Kevin was incapable of doing the most basic task and Juri wasn’t better. “I think it’s ready,” she finally said.

"Marvelous. Then, tie this little animal to a tree with a..." I thought that we needed something that would keep Fenix at bay in case he woke up early. I hadn't made the sleep spell very powerful after all. "a serpent. This will be enough."

She approached me, avoiding my eyes and trying to dry his sweaty hands in her jeans. "Rosemary but conjuring a serpent it's very complicated. I don't know if I can," she said hesitantly.

"With a serpent scale and a cord, you can use a simple illusion spell. Can you handle it?" I sighed in frustration. She nodded like a little puppy and started to drag Fenix because, of course, a levitation spell would be too much for her. My mother was right when she said that Blue Lake Academy was worse each year. I really didn't miss anything by not attending. 

I went to the inner summoning circle to talk with Mako. In my path, I looked at Kevin who was touching his new scar with a losing gaze. He needed it. He couldn't survive in the witches' world with so candidness. Mako hung up her phone and approached me.

"Rose, Atticus was in Lucas's, they are already coming," she said.

"I will never understand this friendship." A heavy sound caught our attention, Juri had dropped Fenix against the tree. "Was there no one better?" I said to Mako.

"It's what there was. You are the princess bee yet, no one competent wants to help you obtain much power."

"Yeah, but they are so useless." Maybe I shouldn't have criticized her girlfriend in front of her, but like my mother always said a sibylline tongue is the most powerful spell to control people.

"I know, but it's so hot," she said and bit his lip looking at Juri and ignoring my commentary. "Do you want to cancel it?" she asked while she kept looking at her girlfriend intensely.

"It's too late, the incense is still burning. The veil between worlds is torn. Besides, I am not the kind of person to give up on such a small problem."