I had managed to get through the night. Sort of. I was getting even more impatient now waiting on the crow vision to activate. I had a restless sleep, only getting a few hours rest before waking up, wandering around my room for a little bit, going back to sleep for a few more hours only to get up and do the same all over again. I was that restless that on my second round of pacing that night, Duncan came in and sat up with me for a bit; even though he looked pretty tired himself. He kept me company for a little while, as Domino had obviously had enough of my restlessness and retired to his favourite chair for a snooze. Duncan had brought me a cup of tea at some point and I had managed to drink half of it before I dozed off again. There was a general sense of unease kicking about that I could feel and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t helping me at all.

But as the morning came and I was up proper, I made my way downstairs to the kitchen for some breakfast; only to find my Aunt sat on the kitchen worktop still in her pj’s, her arms enveloped around Arne who had her in a tight embrace. She appeared to be grasping on to his Blackwatch tartan flannel shirt for dear life, almost as if she let go; Arne would disappear in to the ether. She looked over at me as I wandered over to the kettle to make a pot of tea, the dark circles under her eyes appeared to be just as bad as mine. We both looked like death warmed up.

‘Morning Maddie. You sleep like shit too?’ Auntie M asked me as she raised her head from Arne’s shoulder, barely wanting to detach from him.

‘Yep, diabolical sleep.’ I sighed; holding my Aunts mug up, silently asking if she wanted tea. She nodded slowly as her eyelids drooped in tiredness.

‘I ended up coming down for some belladonna to get me to sleep after one this morning.’

‘That bad?’ I asked her.

‘That bad.’ Arne answered. ‘ This one is a nightmare when she can’t sleep, I don’t like her using Belladonna much though.’

‘And that’s why I don’t use it much.’ My Aunt said, rolling her eyes at Arne. ‘It’s not good for you in the long term either, using it all the time.’

‘I’ll take note of that.’ I said. The kettle had finished boiling so I filled up the teapot and left it to brew for a few minutes while I put some sugar in to our mugs and grabbed some milk from the fridge. I was instructed to get some breakfast by my Aunt who had reluctantly peeled herself of Arne, who himself seemed pretty hesitant in letting her go. I left them to it, deciding to fill myself up with cereal, yoghurt and several bowls of fruit salad before I went to get dressed. I was dressing for pure comfort today, throwing on my favourite, well worn and bedded in jeans and the biggest, cosiest sweater I owned; figuring I’d most likely end up on the couch having a little snooze at some point. But after shoving my hair up in to some kind of ponytail and gracing my face with the bare minimum of make up I could get away with, I trudged through in to my Aunt’s lab to do some magic studying. If nothing was happening, I’d at least do something productive today.

Auntie M had obviously had the same idea as I had. She was dressed in comfy warm clothes, wore minimal make up and had also tied her hair up in to some kind of a messy bun.

‘Just you and me today kiddo, the vampires will all be having naps today.’ Auntie M said to me. ‘They’re kinda on stand by.’ She shrugged.

‘Weirdly that makes sense.’ I replied. ‘Whatcha doing?’ I peered over to the pestle and mortar that my Aunt was using, not with the gusto she usually did but whatever she was doing was getting the job done. She was using her big heavy black marble pestle and mortar; whatever was in it was making a gritty sound which wasn’t too pleasant to hear, but the smell was actually quite nice.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

‘Oh I’m making a hair mask for a lady I know with psoriasis in her scalp, she says it’s the only thing she’s used that helps it.’

‘Is it just a potion? No magic?’ I asked.

‘Oh, just a little magic. It’s mainly ginger, coal tar, dead sea salt, Epsom salts and a few essential oils to stop it from stinking to high heavens. And now some of this…’

My Aunt dumped in a few large tablespoonfuls of a high quality coconut oil and proceeded to mash that in to the mixture with the pestle, making sure everything was well incorporated. I could feel her channel a bit of magic in to the concoction, not a huge amount; more a sprinkling of good, healing energy.

‘Here, have a look at this. You can make this one for me, for another client.’ My Aunt nudged a small, old and battered looking leather bound notebook over to me and flicked it over to a certain page. It read “Moccasin Foot” at the top and had a list of ingredients and a method for this preparation.

‘What the hell is Moccasin foot?’ I asked as I scanned the ingredients list. It was fairly simple, tea tree oil, peppermint oil, a large amount of jojoba oil and garlic. Lots and lots of garlic.

‘It’s sort of another name for athletes foot. I have clients that can’t or won’t use over the counter or prescription medication, so they come to me for lotions and potions. It’s quite a lucrative side business, I don’t make stuff often but it’s fun once in a while.’

If there’s one thing my Aunt absolutely did not need, then it was more money. Goddess know why she did this to make a bit more money on the side, I’m pretty sure she had an American Express Black Card with the amount of money she had.

‘Hey, lotions, potions and curses are our meat and potatoes as witches. You could set up your own little business making this stuff. Glamour up some nice labels, sell it to your idiot more money than sense classmates. You could give Lush a run for their money.’

‘Y’know Auntie M, that’s actually not a bad idea. I mean, I wouldn’t have to skimp on stuff I buy with the allowance mum sends me.’ I said as I pondered this idea. Granted, I get more money given to me every month than most other kids my age, who don’t have the privilege I do. But things are expensive, even more so when you go to a posh private boarding school. Plus, my skimping on things I either needed or wanted was mainly because I would need the money for when I eventually got a car, which are expensive enough on their own. Mum wasn’t exactly overly lavish with money like my Aunt could be sometimes, but like I was told; they grew up dirt poor. I think my mum was trying to instill some kind of sensibility in to me with her not paying for absolutely bloody everything for me.

‘Is your mum still being a tight arse with you?’ My Aunt asked, I just nodded. Her notions of “tight” were completely different to mine and my mum.

‘Maddie if ever you need money for what ever reason, you can always come to me you know?’

‘Thank you Auntie M, but I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to be like the other kids at school who get literally everything given to them on a silver platter. The real world doesn’t work like that and I don’t want to become too dependant.’

‘Pfft you’re a proper Taylor alright. But, if you won’t take money from me then do consider making some stuff to sell. You can use the recipes in that book they’re tried and tested.’

I spent a while making the “Moccasin foot” remedy. To say it was simple was well and all but it was a bit of a tedious process, mainly because of the amount of garlic that was needed. My Aunt watched me for a little while struggling with the “paperwork” as she called it, the peeling of the papery skin on the garlic cloves; before she intervened and showed me a better way to deal with the three full heads of stuff the recipe required. She brought me a large Tupperware tub, broke the garlic bulbs up in to cloves, then literally shook the hell out of the tub with the lid on for a good twenty seconds at least. That’s a new life hack I just learnt that I’ll probably only ever use when making this recipe.

The now de-papered cloves were blended to a puree in a small electric blender, the puree was then added to the other ingredients and given a good stir before being poured in to a fairly large bottle, with a label reading “foot mask” already on it. The garlic had been making my eyes water a little, but the vapour soon dispersed when I added the other oils.

We spent most of the morning making other strange creams and oils, ointments and sludges. My hands were feeling incredibly soft from using all the oils and other ingredients but I could not get the overpowering stink of garlic and coal tar off my skin, like it had permeated in to every wrinkle and groove in my hands. I was thankful that my Aunt had a strange chunk of smooth metal by the sink, a soap bar sized piece of stainless steel solely for the purpose of getting yucky smells off your hands. Surprisingly, it actually worked.

I was just about to follow my Aunt in to the living room, to watch some telly with a big mug of tea when crow vision kicked in.

‘You had a vision Maddie?’ Said Auntie M, she looked concerned but the look on my face must have changed her mind.

‘I think so?’ I wasn’t so sure myself. It was almost like my crow friend had sent an image and decided to delete it or something. I got the quickest glimpse of what looked like a family walking through the woods with their two dogs. I told my Aunt this, feeling slightly relieved that it wasn’t our public enemy number one but also disappointed at that fact. I just wanted to get this guy and I wanted it sooner rather than later. My friends and all those other women were in trouble and I just wanted them all home and safe.