City of Witchcraft

The Journal

Livalin Reese was the youngest reporter to ever work at Cantrix City News (usually referred to as CCN). They had sought her out when she was young, as she would write argumentative and investigative pieces and post them online. CCN was surprised to find that she was only a teenager at the time. She wrote her first article for them when she was only sixteen years old, and had started working there full-time as soon as she graduated.

Livalin would always write the articles that her boss requested she wrote, but in her free time, she would write about her own special interest: Witchcraft. She had written numerous articles on the topic, but she'd never published any of them out of fear of public humiliation. But she kept track of everything she learned in a composition notebook that she kept in her nightstand.

That notebook rarely brought that notebook with her when she left her apartment. But one day she had no idea what came over her, but she took the notebook from its place in her nightstand and put it into her satchel just before leaving for work. She kept it hidden in her bag throughout the workday, but as the day came to a close she visited her boss's office.

"Hey uh, Mr Whitemore?" Livalin asked, knocking on the doorframe of the open door as she slipped into the room. Mr Whitemore looked up from his desk with an amused look on his face.

"You can call me Larry, Livalin," Mr Whitemore said with amusement. Livalin waved it off, laughing.

"Right, sorry. Habit from my days in school."

Larry nodded before gesturing to the chair on the other side of his desk. As he did this, he said, "Here, take a seat. What is it you need?"

Livalin remained standing as she said, "I was just wondering if I would be able to leave a little early today?"

Livalin thought she caught a hint of disappointment flicker on Larry's face, but when she blinked it was gone. After a momentary pause, he said, "As long as you get your article in, go ahead."

"Thank you so much, sir," Livalin said before making their way back out through the open door. Livalin quickly made her way over to her desk, logging out of her computer before grabbing her things and making her way out of the building. She gave a friendly wave to the security guard -Bryan- on her way out- same as she always did.

Once Livalin was out of the building's spinning front door, feeling the cool air on her skin, she let herself take a deep breath before taking her journal out of her bag. She felt this strange pull from the journal that she'd never felt before, and it almost felt like it was guiding her. She could feel the journal pulling on her mind, her heart, and her soul, and that it was willing her to follow its directions. So she did. She walked along the streets of Cantrix City following the journal, without a single thought of where she should be going.

After a while, Livalin finally reached where the journal was leading her- a graveyard. It was the oldest graveyard in Cantrix City, having been here for as long as the city had been. The graveyard was accompanied by an old, run-down church that hadn't been used in several decades- a relic of an older, simpler time.

Livalin knew this graveyard was where the journal was pulling her, but despite reaching her destination, it kept tugging on her. She took a look around the graveyard. It was foggy and hard to see far- which Livalin thought was strange, considering how sunny it had been just a few minutes earlier. But in the distance, standing above a grand grave, was a strange, hunched-over figure. Livalin could feel that figure was what the journal was tugging her to.

Despite the bad feeling she got from the figure, she listened to the journal, cautiously making her way over to the figure. In no time at all, she had reached the woman's side, and she could read the name that was on the gravestone- Gale Winters.

"Strange, isn't it?" the person beside Livalin asked. Livalin jumped. She hadn't expected them to say anything.

"What's strange?" Livalin asked. She felt this strange chill up her spine, and her stomach felt sick, like something about this was very, very wrong.

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed? I thought you were smarter than that, Livalin."

"What- how do you know my name?" Livalin asked, suddenly feeling panic rise inside her. The woman beside her turned to face her, a large smile on her face.

"I've read your work," the woman said. Livalin let out a sigh of relief.

"Right, of course."

"Your article on the role witches played in the foundation of Cantrix City was incredibly interesting."

"I never wrote an article about that," Livalin said, baffled. The woman shook her head.

"No, I suppose not. But you will."

Livalin shot her a confused look, before finally taking in the woman's features. She looked to be around 70 years old, and her hair had grayed long ago. She wore a small pair of glasses and had her hair tied in a neat bun. Livalin could see the wisdom that the woman before her held in her features- especially her soft, gray eyes. The woman had a pleasant expression on her face, but Livalin could tell based on its structure that it was not normally that way.

The woman let out a loud, dramatic sigh as her smile dissipated. "Anyway, I suppose I best be on my way."

The woman turned to walk away when Livalin asked, "What do you know about witchcraft?"

"Hm?" The woman looked over her shoulder back at Livalin. "I've heard plenty of stories, but I don't really know much for certain."

Livalin heard the woman stifle a laugh at that, like she was making a joke that only she understood. Determined, Livalin pulled the journal out from her bag, holding it up for the woman to see.

"I know this is going to sound crazy, and I don't really know how best to explain it but... I think my journal brought me here. And I think it wants me to talk to you."

The woman's smile from earlier returned. "Did your journal bring you here, or did someone bring your journal here?"

"What?"

The woman shook her head again, an amused expression taking her face. "Objects are not themselves capable of guiding you, unless someone tells them to do so."

"I don't understand."

The woman waved it off. "And you won't. You will eventually, but eventually is a long ways away."

With that, the woman began to walk away again. Livalin watched as she did before one burning question rose to the surface as she unthinkingly blurted, "What's your name?"

The woman stopped once more, but this time she didn't turn to face Livalin. "My name? I'm Gale Winters, dear. I'm disappointed you don't remember." The woman paused for a moment. "Although I suppose you wouldn't remember. Not yet." The woman laughed to herself once more, clearly thinking she'd told some hilarious joke. "Tell Lacey I say hello."

"Lacey? Who's Lacey?" Livalin asked. But the woman didn't say anything. Suddenly, something struck a cord in Livalin's mind, and she turned back to the grave the woman had been staring at. But when she turned to face it, she found it was no longer there. Livalin turned back to face the woman, wanting to check for confirmation that the grave had in fact existed, but when she turned she found that the woman was no longer there. Not only that, the fog that had once filled the graveyard was now gone, the sun burning bright in the sky, beating heat down onto Livalin and the graveyard.

The only other living thing Livalin saw in the grave was a silver cat. It seemed to glow brightly in the light, and it stared at her from across the graveyard. Livalin and the cat stood there in silence, neither daring to look away, before Livalin took a step in the direction of the cat and it took off, disappearing into the shrubbery that made up the graveyard's border.

After another eternity, Livalin tucked the journal back into her bag and walked out of the graveyard. She looked around at her surroundings, and none of them seemed to look familiar. Livalin took a deep breath, closing her eyes in the hopes she would feel the pull of the journal to guide her back to her apartment. But the journal didn't pull on her. But something else, something unfamiliar, did. And, not knowing where it would lead her, Livalin followed.