The House With a Secret Within Its Walls - Florence Zimmerman

Chapter 3 - Ember

A/N: Shout out to simpforholytrinity for giving me motivation to finish writing this chapter. I'll try to write the next one on the weekend and publish it asap.

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"Evil spirit, I command thee, exit this person-... uhhh... laptop's body- I mean, hardware!" Lewis pointed at his possessed device.

Jonathan leaned closer to it, inspecting the text on the screen.

"Nothing's happening," he deducted.

"Yeah, no shit," Lewis responded. "What made you think it was a demon in the first place?"

"Well, I just assumed..." Jonathan scratched the back of his head. "You're right, maybe we overdid it."

"You think so?" Lewis glanced at the huge pentagram his uncle drew on the living room floor. "I hope you have alcohol somewhere."

"Alcohol? You're fifteen!" Jonathan scolded. "There is no way on-..."

"I meant to remove the alcoholic marker," Lewis cut him off.

"Oh... I'll go check," Jonathan stood up. "Try the ritual one more time while I'm looking... Just in case."

Lewis rolled his eyes but he raised his hand once again and started the chant from the beginning, while his uncle made his way towards the bathroom.

As he walked by the stairs, Jonathan lifted his head to check the stained glass picture, just out of habit. He wouldn't have expected it to change, it would have been a ridiculous thought, wouldn't it?

Well, no, he would have been correct. The image did change, it was showing Florence now, sitting in Jonathan's car with a purple snake - probably William Snakespeare - wrapped around her neck.

Finally, a familiar face, the warlock thought. Maybe the exorcism worked on the house instead of the laptop? ... Is the house possessed??

"Hey, Lewis, try the chant on the furniture too, will you?" he raised his voice, so that his nephew could hear him in the living room.

"Are you kidding me?" Lewis groaned.

"I'm not. The window is kind of back to normal, maybe we're doing something right," Jonathan explained.

"Yeah, whatever you say. Help me carry the couch into the pentagram circle, then."

"Sure thing."

-•°•-

Meanwhile Florence arrived at home and carried the purple snake inside. She set it down on the couch, then she walked around the house twice, making sure that every door was locked and every curtain was pulled shut. When she was sure nobody could peer inside, she went back to the living room, but to her surprise, she didn't find the snake there.

However, she did find a huge tiger trying to pry the front door open.

"Stop doing that! Are you mad?" she exclaimed.

The shapeshifter turned around and roared at Florence.

"Woah, woah!" the witch raised her hands in surrender. "What has gotten into you?"

In response, the tiger glanced at the shelf with potion ingredients and spellbooks, then looked at her savior with an accusatory, threatening face, while simultaneously flashing her huge teeth.

"Yes, I am a witch," Florence explained. "But I'm on your side. I just learned about the hunt and I am against it. Why do you think I went against my brother and sister in the craft and lied for you? Because I don't want innocent people to die, obviously."