Tame Your Fears

Circle Sewn With Fate/Unlock Thy Hidden Gate

Agatha Harkness was normally a terrifying figure, even in a floral silk robe with her hair a mess and a scrawny little boy attached to her side. She knew this to be a fact of life for about as long as she had been alive. Agatha Harkness did not feel terrifying with her son clutching to her legs, staring down a scrawny teenager spouting nonsense that on any other day she'd agree too just to see how long he'd make it.

"Come again?" She pulled Nicholas closer, pushing him behind her ever so slightly.

"The Witches' Road." He said again, wriggling his way into an upright position, "I want you to take me there. Please."

"The Witches' Road doesn't exist." Agatha said bluntly, pushing Nicholas towards the kitchen, "Nicky? Hold our uninvited guest at spell and knife point if need be. I need to get dressed."

She shuffled around her bedroom, trying to find the least offensive clothing from her closet. She settled on a plain dark purple skirt held up with a thick leather belt, an off-white dress shirt layered under a dark gray vest with embroidered feathers, and a pair of plain leather boots that was the only practical set of footwear she owned. She grabbed a dark wide brimmed hat, purple snakes painted on the underside and a deep purple ribbon tied around the crown. She glanced at her unstained hands, and quickly pulled a pair of purple lace on to cover them.

By the time she got back down to the kitchen, the teen had managed to get himself untied but no further then that. Nicholas was sitting on the counter, swinging his legs back and forth with his rabbit placed in his lap and a large butcher knife twirling in his hands. Agatha clapped her hands together, pressing a light kiss to the side of Nicholas' head, "That's my boy."

"You have a- a great kid here, ma'am." The teen forced a grin, eyeing the knife blade with concern.

"Oh I know." Agatha grinned, "Always listens to Mama."

Nicholas smiled up at her, "He said he likes Señor Scratchy."

"That's sweet." She murmured, "But remember, he broke into our home."

"Yeah..." Nicholas shrugged, "But he said he likes Señor Scratchy and Scratchy likes him. That's a good sign."

"If we listened to your rabbit every time we encountered someone who would get us killed, we'd be long dead by now." Agatha replied, "What does your gut say?"

"I don't know." He shrugged, placing the knife on the counter and hopping down, "But I think he's right."

"You just want to go down the Road too." She sighed, "The road is no place for two kids."

"I'm sixteen." The teenager said, unhelpfully, pulling himself off her fridge door.

"Does it look like I care?" Agatha snapped back, "Nicholas, pick the knife up and-"

She cut herself off when the front door to her house busted open. Glass shattered as it slammed into a cabinet full of decorative china she apparently had and smashed to the floor. Nicholas screamed, before slamming a hand over his mouth and scurrying behind the kitchen island. Señor Scratchy hopped down from the counter, growling at the open air behind him like a cat and thumping his paws on the ground twice before Nicholas could scoop him up.

Agatha grabbed the knife in one hand and put the other behind her back, pointing the blade towards the direction of the front hall and pointing at the pantry with her spare hand. There was a scrambling noise behind her before a door clicked shut and Agatha steadied her breath. Apparently that was all she needed to do before she was slammed against a wall with enough force to bruise a rib or two. She dropped to the floor, the knife slipping out of her hand and kicked away by a sleek black boot.