The Heart of a Hunter

Ashley painted her lips as red as Snow White's poisoned apple. She scrabbled through the makeup on her messy antique dresser for the darkest of her eyeliners. She applied kohl to craft expert cat's eyes. Witchcraft worked too, but Ashley preferred the hands on approach. She scrutinized her emerald green eyes from several angles. Loneliness dwelt within.

A perfectly ordinary car accident, non-magical but cruel, orphaned Ashley at three years old, and forced her to rattle around in the family's enormous antebellum mansion, with only two aged aunts for company. She tried to make friends, but they became frightened when she used her powers around them. So she stopped trying.

Ashley blinked back tears. Reluctant to ruin her makeup she conquered dark feelings with a bright red smile. The image in the mirror was beautiful and determined. Loneliness wouldn't last a lifetime.

Footsteps echoed on the spiral staircase. Ashley's mischievous grin spread. She flicked her wrist and cast a glamor spell that changed her bedcovers from maroon to blue silk brocade. Another and the boudoir's deep burgundy wallpaper transformed, to a matching blue with ornate black filigree.

She was ready to create an up-do for her long onyx locks when her aunt Esmeralda bustled through the doorway. The elderly lady stopped and stared at the walls with eyes barely visible behind a basketful of laundry.

"Everyday a different color, I get dizzy when you change it."

"I know. Dizzy suits you."

"Can I get some help with this?" The overburdened aunt attempted to offload the laundry.

"I'm busy." Ashley's amused reflection eyed her. She shouldn't tease her aunt, but was unable to help herself. Besides, Esme adored annoying her.

"Come on, the clothes won't magic themselves away."

"Yes they will. That's the point of magic."

"All right, then. I suppose I can still do it." She dropped the basket and blinked, staring into the distance. "If I can just remember the phrase..."

She muttered something incomprehensible and waved her left arm anticlockwise over the laundry basket. The clothes shot up, hit the ceiling and descended in a swirling tornado.

Ashley raised an immaculate eyebrow and eyeballed her aunt.

"Maybe that's not the phrase." Esmeralda failed to hide an unapologetic grin. "Agatha makes it look easy." She paused, and then rounded on her niece, her focus keen.

"Hang on, where are you going all dolled up?"

Ashley rolled her heavily made-up eyes. "Just the coven meeting."

"I may be old-"

"Ancient more like."

"-but I'm not that doddery."

"Yes, you are."

"The coven meets Halloween. I forget a lot of things but I know Halloween is tomorrow." She gave Ashley the stink eye in the mirror.

Ashley wished her aunt wouldn't meddle. "Fine. I'm resolved to enslave a minister at midnight in the town square, using only the incredible witchy powers of my sexuality," she smirked.

"Well, you better get a wriggle on, it's nearly ten o'clock. Job like that might take a while, and with your personality, you're going to need all the time you can get."

Ashley muttered a spell and a pair of knickers that had landed on the dresser flew through the air in a loop-de-loop and fell on her aunt's head.

"Well, it's nice to see you'll have no trouble whipping your knickers off. Getting in a bit of practice I see." The old lady laughed. She removed the offending article and plopped herself on the luxurious bed amidst the clothes, rubbing at her knuckles.