Whispers at Witching Hour

Chapter 10

Musical inspiration: Edge of Seventeen – Stevie Nicks

"'Brina, what're you doing after school? Fancy a movie night?" Theo asked.

Roz and Harvey caught up and they walked the school hall together.

"Actually, I've wanted to ask you if you'd want to join us. I've been planning a surprise for Auntie Zee."

"And what kind of surprise?" Roz followed up.

"It's basically a picnic with some karaoke. Just the family and you guys if you want. Auntie Zee loves Fleetwood Mac, so we thought we could make it a theme or something," Sabrina explained enthusiastically.

"Sounds good to me," Roz turned to the others, "What about you guys?"

"Sure, we're in."

They entered the classroom and sat down as Ms Wardwell turned up. She appeared absent and avoidant, as she had been frequently for the past few weeks, especially towards Sabrina. Although Sabrina had always enjoyed her history lessons, lately it had been boring, because it seemed as if Ms Wardwell was not much invested in what she was talking about.

The lesson did not seem to come to an end today, but Sabrina was busy planning the surprise in her head. Ms Wardwell moved past Roz and examined her written answer to one of the questions on the paper. Roz looked at her when she raised an eyebrow and pointed on a sentence with her finger, thereby touching Roz just slightly for a second. That was enough to send a series of pictures to Roz' mind. The girl gasped when Ms Wardwell had finally moved on.

After class had been dismissed, she accompanied Sabrina and Harvey on their way out.

"Hey, Sabrina? Why don't you ask Ms Wardwell to join the picnic?" she suggested.

"Ms Wardwell?"

"Yeah, you know, your aunt would surely appreciate some adult guests... And... Ms Wardwell hasn't been in the best mood either. It'd do her good, don't you think?" Roz argued.

"Why not? I can give it a go." Sabrina shrugged her shoulders.

She approached her teacher at her desk, who was fiddling with her books and took only note of the girl when Sabrina stood right in front of her.

"Sabrina?" Her favourite teacher did not even look at her.

"Yes, Ms Wardwell. My family and I are having a picnic this afternoon to surprise my Aunt Zelda. I was wondering if you might want to join us?"

Her teacher's body tensed when she mentioned her aunt, but Sabrina dismissed it.

She cleared her throat and kept staring at her things.

"That's very kind of you, but I don't think your aunt would be pleased to see me there."

That confused Sabrina since she had been advised otherwise. "But my Aunt Hilda said you were friends?"

"Did she? I mean, yes, but sticking my nose in your family's business wasn't exactly my finest moment, was it?" she laughed nervously, "Anyway, I gotta go."

A hint of disappointment flashed on Sabrina's face, but she did not put too much thought into her teacher's strange behaviour and strolled off with her friends while Madam Satan was left alone with the bitter taste in her mouth the conversation had left behind.

She was more than relieved to leave these hordes of teenage mortals. They were even worse than her Hordes of Hell.

Back at the cottage, she threw her bags in a corner, sat down in front of the fireplace, and kicked her heels off.