Jennifer Griffin

I sat on the floor of the secret room that night and started a fire in the brazier. It had been a busy day. I received the news that I was admitted to the college of medicine and went to the school today. I spent the entire day touring and walking around the place. It made me forget I had some important and magical assignment.

I unfolded the white handkerchief and stared at the strand of hair. I had collected it from the lady with the wolf. It was one of those strange nights. I had visited this strange bar and then ran into her and her strange wolf, just like that. I was smart enough. I would need something that was really her body to use magic on her—nails, blood, or hair.

I had got her hair.

I just need to know more about her. If she was human, I could have just held her hands, looked into her eyes, and gotten my answers.

ardeat.

The fire in the brazier grew taller.

I began to chant.

Ex navi incensa, quae nullo modo

Sed submersio a flamma potuit erui

My grandmother had said the spirit would lead me. I hoped I would find something meaningful in the vision I was about to see. What could her spirit tell me about her? How dangerous was it to stop her? What was her weakness?

Ex navi incensa, quae nullo modo

Sed submersio a flamma potuit erui

Then I put the hair in the fire.

ego exsurgens, lucem speculatus eram

et ad Deum meum clamavi cor meum

The flame slowed down a lot, then grew again but in a different color. Now it was blue. A lady emerged from the flame, but her back was turned to me.

“Who are you?” I asked.

She turned around and looked at me. Her eyes were beautiful, and she had this calm disposition as if she would not take nonsense from anyone.

“Who are you?”

“Angelina Adeline Cole.”

“What’s your secret?”

“I guess you will have to find out.”

“What’s your weakness?”

“I can tell you, but you still won’t figure it out. I am a werewolf, and I don’t take shit from no one.”

“Where do you live?”

“I stay in Venice. 225. You have to figure things out with a map.”

She rolled her eyes at me and then waited impatiently. I had done this before, a couple of times with some people I wanted to summon their spirits. But I liked this one. With her attitude and the way she spoke, she was a badass. I liked her.

“What do you like doing?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Movies, most likely. Hunting, but it had been years since I hunted something.” I think I am the only wolf alive who has stopped going out at night as much as I wanted. Moving to California changes everything. “

“Tell me more about yourself then,” I said.

She continued to talk about herself and her childhood as a student. She told me how I loved every bit of it, the jokes, the awkward silence. She told me she used to go for walks now with her new dog.

I didn’t know she would hide that “the dog” was not a dog, even with her spirit, so I tried again. “You mean the werewolf. Your friend.”

“I can’t talk about that.”

I had her address, the things she liked to do, and where she spent not most of her time - work or on her computer. I could work with that. I would only need the werewolf’s blood, and that would be all. I would become the greatest, most powerful witch in the country. How could I do that if I couldn’t chant it or use my power on it without getting its blood?

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“Thank you for this conversation,” I said.

“You are most welcome,” she said.

“You can go now.”

bonum noctis

Her image began to faint in the flame until she vanished completely. Then I walked to the bedroom. I would go out later to the address she gave me.

***

I drove to her house that night and parked the car on the street, watching the building. If what she told me was right, she should walk around with her dog soon enough. I put an earplug in one ear and a burger wrap in my hand as I ate and watched movies on my phone, which was right in front of me. She told me her favorite movie was Lord of the Rings. I had seen that one and was trying to catch up on it in case it could be a conversation starter.

But I sat there for some minutes. When I noticed no movement, I stepped out of the car and walked towards the building. She didn’t show up. I did one more check to ensure no one was inside the house. Then I lay my hands on the door handle. perdere, I whispered. It gave in immediately, and I slid into the house as fast as I could. No wolves. No woman. At least, I saw none of them in the living room. I didn’t hear any sounds, too, just the clock ticking. The picture on the wall said I was truly in the right place. I saw Angelina at various ages — when she was a toddler, a teenager, and an adult. I walked around the space, from the living room to the dining to the kitchen to the bedroom. I headed back to the living room and headed to a corner. There, I created a sign with my hands, the star sign, that would make things possible. I looked around the house and headed towards the exit door again. This was an opportunity to become part of Angelina’s life. This was the best chance I had to get close to werewolves. I got out of the building, hurried out, locked the door back, and headed down the road where I parked. I got inside and waited.

I rechecked the time, but it was already 10 pm. She said she used to sleep at this time, and I wanted to believe her. Maybe she wasn’t coming tonight. It was a strange thing, as she had already told me, she had no friends or family in this city. She was from another town. No matter how hard I pressed her, she wouldn’t tell me about it. I rubbed my fingers and looked at the door of her house again. How quiet the street had grown since I arrived here. When I arrived, a few cars drove by, but it had been some minutes without a car driving by.

They arrived around 11 pm. The sound of her car broke the silence. I looked at her vehicle and nodded, and was proud of myself.

They drove to the front of the house. The wolf came down first, and then Angelina killed the engine and came down a few moments later. The wolf was waiting at the door by then. It was so apparent that was no dog. It carried itself like humans, so calm, in control of its body. But again, humans are good at understanding signs that say something is beyond ordinary.

Angelina alighted from the car and walked to the building. Something had happened, something terrible. I could tell from how she took a deep breath before walking to the door that she looked tired. The wolf just stared around like he had not eaten all day.

I waited until she entered the house, walked, turned on the lights, and turned them back off. I started the engine, reciting my grandma’s favorite poem, The Raven.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and started reciting chants.

Ex navi incensa, quae nullo modo

Sed submersio a flamma potuit erui

et ad Deum meum clamavi cor meum

I kept my eyes shut still and waited. When I opened my eyes, I saw smoke rising from her window. The house’s front door broke open, and Angelina and her dog ran outside the building.

I sped the car toward the front of her house and parked.

“Hey, are you okay?” I shouted.

“Yeah,” she said, not looking at my face. “We need to call for help,” she said. “Do you have a phone,” she asked.

“Yeah, I do,” I said.

I brought out my phone and handed it to her. “Here, make the call,” I said. “We should do something before it gets out of hand.”

“I have a fire extinguisher. I tried to find it, but I couldn’t. It’s not on the wall… where it used to be….”

Yeah, it wasn’t.

Some of her neighbors had started coming out of the house and trying to see what had gone wrong.

“Let’s see if I can do something,” I said. I put a hand into my pocket, brought a piece of clothing, and tied it around my nose. Then I rushed towards the building, and I spoke as I got closer. obedire conatu.

The smoke began to die down. Then I rushed inside, straight into the living room, and headed straight to the kitchen. Getting to the corner I had left the mark, I put my hands on it and cast the spell. The mark disappeared. I took a deep breath again and headed out of the building.

“It’s okay,” I said.

But outside, I could hear the siren of the fire service. I stood by Angelina and waited for the officers to come around. By the time they got closer, the smoke was already dying out. I had killed the source of the smoke, so that was expected.

The officers went into the building. Was it instinct or human consciously? I hugged Angelina once, and then we both held each other hands when the firefighters went inside. We waited for them.

They came out with some good news. The captain or leader, a tall black gentleman, told us it was safe. They promised to hang around for some time so that she could get to bed.

“Thank you,” Angelina said. Then she looked at my face and frowned. “I know you,” she said.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “We met a few days ago… You are Angelina. And he is..” I said, looking at her dog.’

“Col…”

“Okay, Col. I was driving by, and I saw the smoke, and I was like, I should help.”

“That’s so kind of you.”

“Yeah. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I am… I am just hoping it doesn’t happen again. But I sleep… cause I’m really, really tired.”

“It’s okay. You get some rest. I will check on you tomorrow,” I hugged her. Then I watched as she and her dog got into the building. Then I turned around, smiling with a bit of bouncing in my steps as I walked to my car. I wondered what my grandmother would say about the stunt I had just pulled off.