The Curious Cat: A Petunia's Peculiar Particulars Prequel

Black Magic

John loosened the laces on his boots and toed them off of his feet. It was cold, so he left his socks on, but he needed to be a heck of a lot quieter than his work boots were going to allow if this was going to work. John skirted the edge of the parking lot and took a permanent marker out of his pocket. He quickly drew a sigil on the nearest concrete parking block and moved to another a few feet away.  He only hoped to make the ring of sigils around the parking lot before Emilia could get what she wanted from his family.

Tabitha was utterly unaware of her husband moving around the edges of the parking lot in the darkness. Still, she knew it was better to keep Emilia focused on her. The more the witch wasted time with her, the more time Bathsheba and John had to get the spell components to the circle or even form another one. Rhiannon squeezed her fingers. Tabitha knew her daughter was scared, but she couldn't afford to take her eyes off of Emilia as she floated above them on her broom, shooting lightning bolts at them from her wand. Tabitha knew that staves were stronger because there was more surface area to inscribe with sigils of power. Still, the raw ability to channel magical energy counted for something too, and that was a particular talent of Emilia's that she never hesitated to show off.

"Eventually, your shield is going to break, Tabitha. Why put your daughter through all of this? Why not just give it up and let me end it for you both?" Emilia asked as she shot another bolt at her.

Tabitha pushed her shield magic at it and deflected it to the side, where it struck a light pole. The blast caused a power surge, and the bulb popped. Shattered glass tinkled as it hit the ground and shimmered in the moonlight. "You'll have to kill me to get to my daughter, Emilia, but you already know that."

The witch cackled. "It's true. I do," she said with no small amount of amusement in her voice. "Two deaths will be even better."

"What is it that you're hoping to accomplish here, anyway? You murdered my son. You murdered that poor girl at the high school."

"You know nothing about that girl," Emilia spat. She shot a massive bolt at Tabitha and Rhiannon, and a crack of thunder rolled above their heads that boomed so loudly, Rhiannon let go of her mother's hand to cover her ears.

When the sound faded, Rhiannon trembled behind Tabitha and whispered, "Maybe don't piss off the evil witch that's willing to murder people, Mom?"

"Psst..." a voice said to Rhiannon's left. She looked. It was the shade of the girl from the high school. Her head was unnaturally sitting on her neck. Rhiannon opened her mouth to scream at the sight of it, but the girl waved her hands in front of Rhiannon's face. "No! Don't! Shhhh! She can hear you, but she can't hear me."

Rhiannon clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Rhiannon!" Her mother shouted as another bolt of lightning flickered around the shield, and she pushed it away from them, hitting another light pole on the other side of the parking lot. "Give me your hand, now!"

Rhiannon seemed frozen to her spot. She stood slack-jawed, staring at the grotesque form of the dead girl until the girl said to her, "Do it! Quick!"

Something in the dead girl's voice snapped her out of it, and she laced her fingers through her mom's again.

"Look, just close your eyes and concentrate on my voice and listen," the girl said. "It'll probably be easier. I don't know what I look like to you, but I fell off a building and broke my neck. I can't possibly be pretty."

The clarity and confidence in the girl's voice had Rhiannon following her advice. She closed her eyes tightly and began focusing on channeling her energy to her mom again.