Lovely Witchery

Birthday

It came to be my birthday and I was introduced to the man I was supposed to wait on hand and foot until he died. I would inherit the money he left behind and spend the rest of my years in "pain."

I was in my room with my grandmother while she tightened the huge piece of fabric stretched around my torso. I wasn't much bigger than how tight the thing hugged me so it wasn't too difficult to get on but still very uncomfortable. The dress my grandmother and mother had made me was then stretched over my head. It was white with red fabric flowers rimming the bottom and top of the dress, and a red strap that went around the middle made out of the same fabric as the flowers so it would match perfectly.

After staring at myself in awe in the mirror, because the fanciest thing I've worn was a dirty old dress for Sunday worship, my grandmother left to fix lunch  and my mom came in with a box and hair clip.  She set the box on my bed and sat behind me combing my hair and figuring out how she would pin my hair up.

While she was doing this, I was staring at the box sitting on my bed in the mirror. I really wanted to know what was in it so I said "Mom, can I see what's in that box?" She just kept on doing my hair and acted as if I had never asked until she was done. "Okay, ready for your present?" She said cheerfully. She placed it in front of me and I opened it very excitedly because it's the first present I had ever gotten. Inside was an old book with weird symbols, a bent stick with carvings of the weird symbols, and a necklace that had a reddish maroon crystal on it. "What are these mom?" I asked clearly confused and not impressed. I was expecting a pretty bracelet, or hat, or even cash. Not this junk.

She saw that I was a little disappointed. "These will protect you and you'll figure out how to use them when the time comes. Be thankful child. You look stunning but you are going to be late. You don't want him to start beating you right away," she said.

She walked out of my room leaving me with my odd gifts. I studied the book and didn't understand it at all. On the back was a stain that looked like it could be blood, and burn marks. It sent shivers down my spine, so I moved onto the stick which was strangely very sturdy. It looked like you could snap it with one hand but once you held it, it felt like steel.

After I toyed around with the stick not knowing why my mom would have given it to me, I picked up the crystal. I rolled it in my hands and felt very drawn to it. It was beautiful and I wondered where my mom had gotten it from. I decided to put it on as a finishing touch to my outfit and right as I did there was a knock at the door.

I ran out seeing the man whom I would soon be a slave for.