A Coven
A long, long time ago, in a small house in the woods, lived a girl with a fire-coloured hair. Mother named her Salem. There was something special about that girl, she was different, and she knew it deep down in her heart. Her mother kept calling her a witch from the time she was born and she kept reminding her up until her last moments. Then, her mother passed, and just in a few years, her father left. Salem was all alone, just with her two baby sisters. In the woods, they had to survive on their own, poor little kids.
Once Salem yelled at the littlest one for spilling the tea, and suddenly something weird happened. The Sun hid behind the clouds and the storm began. The clock on the wall started a race with itself and all the candles went out. From that moment, she knew something was not right. She waited, just until her sisters fell asleep and she ran up to the attic, which was closed for the last nineteen years and the key was hidden from her little sisters. Her father gave it to the oldest a few days before he left, saying 'Find a way there if something happens'.
The attic didn't seem that old and, to be honest, it looked like someone lived here all this time. The first thing that caught Salem's attention were the minerals lying on the wooden floor, creating a weird shape. She didn't recognize it at first but when she did, she was scared. Then, she looked at all the books on the shelves. One of them, Sleeping Beauty, seemed familiar. She wanted to take a closer look... but a weird noise scared her. She grabbed the book and ran down the stairs.
The girls were long asleep just as the whole house was. The book opened on the table, all by itself, almost scaring Salem to death. "That is not Sleeping Beauty", she said to herself. She picked it up, very slowly, and what she saw was incredibly strange. There was a map and a letter, explaining her origin, the most secret things and telling, of course, she is, indeed, a witch.
So she took the map, packed a book and as a true witch would do, decided to fly on a broom. Of course, she had no idea how to actually fly. After trying a couple of times, she started crying and, apparently, it made the broom feel some sympathy for the poor girl because it decided to help. And just in a few seconds, Salem was gone. She tried so hard to understand the map she found but it was the strangest one she ever saw. And the broom wasn't helping this time. She had to walk to find the right way, while it started getting dark around. Then she saw a light on her path. "Need help?" the light asked. "I do." Salem said. And she went right behind him. They had to fight the woods in the dark, they had to run from the furious owls.
Finally, they reached the most breathtaking tree, the biggest one Salem had ever seen; yet the most dangerous of them all. An old tree, which seemed to be dying, but just between us: it was the most alive in the forest. The Light made a way around the tree while it opened its roots to show them a path. Salem decided to go inside. A cup of tea welcomed her in a hallway, The Light took her stuff and flew to another room, where music was on and the smell of a cake was in the air. She entered the room to the group of young witches standing around the table.
"We were waiting for you", one of them said.
"What is going on here?", Salem asked.
"You're one of us", she said, showing a seat with a gesture of her hand. And so Salem sat and they started eating.
A fire-head witch started to seem worried, then said:
"I need to get back to my sisters, they're all alone in the woods".
The coven looked at each other, then at her.
"Do not worry, Salem, they're upstairs, safe and asleep".
She calmed down. They ended eating in silence, then gifted the girl a pile of clothes. A few dresses for her and her sisters. She was so relieved that the girls were upstairs! After she said goodnight to everyone, she started looking for their room on the last floor. Her sisters were sleeping behind the last door on the left side of the hall. Salem just peeked inside with an honest smile, then went to her own room to rest a bit.
"You are safe now", she said to herself while falling asleep.
~ to be continued ~
