Lovesick Witches

Round One

I yawned as we sat in chanting class at the end of the day. Miss Bat was sleeping on her desk, as per usual, and the rest of us were just sitting there waiting for the day to be over. The sunny skies we got to enjoy the previous day had unfortunately disappeared and had been replaced by the typical grey clouds that liked to hang out here at Cackle's. 

After a long, tiring day of lessons, the bell rang, waking us all up a bit. Miss Bat dismissed us and my friends and I headed over to the library to find out how the first head girl challenge had gone. The anticipation and hope I had for Beatrice to win was the only think keeping me awake throughout the day. 

Mildred, Maud, Enid and I entered the cosy library and Beatrice rushed over to us, beaming with delight. 

"I won! I won the first challenge!" She hugged us and I was filled with joy to see her so happy. 

"Yes Beatrice! You deserved it!" said Mildred. 

"Well done!" Maud said. 

"Yeah, good job Beatrice," said Enid with a smile. 

"I can't believe I beat Fenella in cat control!" 

"All your hard work is paying off! Where is Fenella, by the way?" I asked as I looked around the library, seeing just the fourth years, and Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom standing and talking at the other side of the room. 

"She stormed out when she lost the challenge," Beatrice giggled. 

My friends and I sat down and continued to chat to Beatrice about everything that had happened in the competition. But as excited as I was for Beatrice, my attention uncontrollably focused itself on something else. My thoughts, once again, found themselves dancing across the room to a certain potions teacher. 

Hecate stood tall in her usual dark dress, her thick hair tidily wrapped around itself as it sat in yet another bun, on the top of her head. I heard murmurs of a conversation that she was having with Miss Cackle about the head girl contest. 

If I was still with Hecate, I would find myself being pulled towards her. Beatrice winning the first round would have taken me straight to Hecate. I would have talked to her about how happy I was and rambled on to her about how I wanted Beatrice to be head girl. I would have shared everything with her. Every time I was happy, I would go and talk to Hecate. Every time I was sad, I would go and talk to Hecate. And having that in my life brought me so much comfort. So much stability. So much excitement and so much joy. 

I wanted to skip over to the beautiful woman standing in the library. I longed to leap into her arms and squeeze her tight. I wished I could share my happiness with her. Because keeping my happiness to myself made me... unhappy. Did this mean that I would never be happy again? If every time I got even just a pinch of happiness, it was taken away because I couldn't share it with her? 

Unlike the previous few occasions I had been hopelessly staring at Hecate, this time, she noticed my intense glare. Her eyes shot over to mine from across the room and I quickly looked away in embarrassment. But when I looked back at her, her eyes were still on me and I was shocked when they united with mine. 

Hecate smiled at me as we held the magical eye contact. All the memories of the two of us together immediately came flooding back in. All the moments I once shared with her. The times when I was crying and she was there comforting me. When I was blissful and got to share joyful hugs with her. Every emotion I had ever felt when being around Hecate came rushing back, in just that one eye contact. 

I blinked and turned away again. I couldn't handle that feeling. I saw a life of beauty and wonder as I gazed into her eyes. But the second the eye contact was cut off, death. The world stood still. Like a frozen lake in a land of eternal winter. Nobody breathed. I was fully aware of my friends sitting next to me. I was sitting with them, thinking. Alive on the outside, maybe. But without Hecate, my soul was dead. 

She was my life. My life wasn't just different without her. It was over. Nothing would ever be right again. 

Hecate needed me. I needed her. We needed each other and everything was wrong when we were apart. I thought that breaking up with Hecate would solve all our problems. Make them disappear. But all it actually did was kill us. Both.