"Katherine?"

The girl didn't look up until Josephine was nearly in front of her. Her eyes were bloodshot. A tear had dripped onto her plastic lenses. She wiped at it with a finger, only to smear it.

"What?" she said flatly.

"I saw what those girls did. It was pretty awful."

"What do you want?"

"I'm sorry. My name is Josephine. I've been waiting out here to talk with you. Would that be all right?"

Katherine studied her. Her eyes narrowed. "I've seen you before. You were at the airport."

Josephine was taken aback. "Yes. That's right. You have a good memory."

"Are you following me?"

"Sort of. Yes, but please don't take it the wrong way. My friends and I saw you in the terminal, and we recognized something in you. So yes, we did come to Wisconsin to meet with you."

"What are you talking about?"

"We're a group of people with unique abilities. We travel together and look out after one another. When we see another like ourselves, we reach out to them."

"Like yourselves... what? What are you?"

"Other people usually call us witches."

Katherine stared at her, then looked around. She crossed to the other side of the street, away and around Josephine.

Josephine chased her. "Wait. Hold on. I'm being serious."

"Go away, or I'll scream!"

"Just hold on a moment."

"Leave me alone!" Katherine's pace picked up.

Time to try again. Josephine flipped a mental switch. Katherine slowed down.

"Katherine," called Josephine.

Katherine turned. Her eyes showed no recognition. "What?"

"Those girls kept a paper of yours."

"Yeah. I know."

"I'm going to get it back for you."

"What?"

"Just watch." Josephine jogged to where the girls lingered on the steps. When they turned to look at her, Josephine yanked away the backpack from the pack leader.

"Hey!" She yelled. The rest startled. Josephine took the memory of the theft from all their minds. It caused them to stand around dumbly, until Josephine dumped the backpack's contents out. The pack leader once again yelled, "Hey!"

Josephine wiped her mind again while she rummaged through her belongings. She found the sheet of paper. It was a high school quality drawing of a boy's profile. Effort had gone into it, although Katherine could use more practice. As Josephine turned to leave, one last idea came to her. She popped the lid off her cold coffee and tossed the remainder at the pack leader. She shrieked. The others yelped and backed away.

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Josephine dropped the cup and jogged back toward Katherine, who watched with wide eyes. The girls had already forgotten what just happened.

"Here you go." Josephine handed the paper back to Katherine. Katherine stared at it like a feral dog measuring whether the treat in the human's hand could be trusted. The girls behind Josephine were still bemused. Neil had come out after hearing the shriek. He was speaking with the girls, while others collected the fallen belongings. None looked Josephine's way.

"Why did you do that?" Katherine asked.

"Because they're a pack of bitches who had it coming."

Despite Katherine's mistrust, she softened a little. "But you just assaulted a student. You could get in trouble for that."

"They don't remember."

"What?"

"They don't remember. I plucked the memory of it from their heads."

Katherine nearly smiled as though it were a joke she just wasn't getting. "What do you mean?"

"Want to see more?"

Pause. "Okay?"

Josephine turned back to Neil and the girls. "Excuse me," she yelled. "Neil... whatever your name was, can you come over here?"

Neil peered at her. Excusing himself from the girls he came over. "Can I help you?"

"I was the one that threw the coffee on the girl."

"What?"

"I dumped all her things on the stairs too."

"Why did you do that?"

"Because I'm a psychopath." She cast a smile over her shoulder at the wide-eyed Katherine to make sure she knew it was all game. If that line scared her too much, Josephine could always pluck the memory later.

"Is this your idea of a joke?"

"No. It's my idea of fun. Picking on children. You should probably call the police, because I'm not going to stop."

Neil sputtered. His face grew red. "I don't know who you think you are, but you need to—"

"Stop," Josephine said, "aaand forget."

And Neil trailed off. He frowned as though he'd lost his train of thought.

"Are you going to help them?" Josephine asked.

"Who?"

"Those girls," Josephine pointed to the pack. "They just called to you."

"They did?"

"Yes."

"Oh, sure. I'll... have a good one." He returned to the girls.

Josephine turned back to Katherine. "Neat. Isn't it?"

"What do you want with me?"

"I wanted to meet you."

"But who are you?"

"My name is Josephine, and I travel with other people like me. We each have unique gifts."

"Like what?"

"I can erase memories. Another of us can read minds, another can sense auras, another can sense other people who are like us."

Katherine's eyes ceased being wide. Her shoulders slumped. "Oh."

"Oh? That's your reaction."

"And you think I might have powers too?"

"Actually, yes."

Katherine spun and started marching away.

"Wait, hold on, where are you going?"

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Katherine yelled over her shoulder. "I don't know how you got Mr. Mitchell to do that, but I'm not dumb."

Good lord this girl is hard to convince. Josephine considered wiping her memory again. Not yet. "I can offer more proof."

Despite her skepticism, Katherine paused and turned a narrowed gaze on her. "Like what?"

"Telepathy? If my friend can read your mind, would you at least give us a chance?"

Katherine eyed her narrowly, but she didn't march off. Josephine waved at the Prius down the road and yelled for Alex.

The driver side door opened. Alex got out. Normally, he and Josephine would never cooperate on anything, but nothing brought the coven together like a new witch.

Alex approached. "Hello, Katherine."

"You can read my mind?"

"Yes."

"Then am I thinking?"

"Polkadot elephants."

Katherine startled, but only for a moment. "And now?"

"Oklahoma."

She said nothing this time, but Alex continued. "Galvanization. The super retarded Green Bay Packers. A room with a fishbowl in the middle of the floor. Three Blind Mice. Seven ice skating rhinos."

Katherine was petrified.

"Yes, I can," answered Alexander to an unspoken question. "I can see your family, your friends... or the ones you used to have. I can see those girls, and how they torment you every day of your life. They're the ones who put nasty messages about you on Facebook—who photoshop pictures of you and post them online. They call you Princess Leia because of your headphones, the ones you had to fix yourself after they stomped them into a toilet, because your father can't afford new ones.

"I see all of that, Katherine. But that's about to be your old life. Today is the start of something new. We knew the moment we saw you that there is something special about you. You can do something no one else in the world can."

"What can I do?" she asked in a small voice.

Alexander put on his award winning smile. "I'm dying to find out just as much as you are."

He had her. Josephine had to hand it to Alex. He could be a real bastard sometimes, but like all bastards, he could draw you in with his words and his smile.