Witch (Supernatural #2)

1: Heaven in Hell

New, adjective.

1. unfamiliar or strange.
2. having but lately come to a place, position, status, etc.
3. unaccustomed.

***

The sky appeared dark through the tinted windows of the car. Even through the untinted glass of the windshield, the sky was dark. Not that I expected anything else this late in November. There ought to be snow soon. Most trees were nothing but skeletons, their leaves rotting away on the ground. Only the pines still added a touch of green. As the car drove along, I tried to imagine what this new landscape would look like covered in a white blanket of fresh snow. It would be beautiful and magical - without the actual magic, of course. It would transform everything; it might even lift the somber and gray filter that had settled over my eyes.

Anything to keep my mind of recent events.

Grandma had sent a driver to the airport to pick up Noah and me. He had been a tall but thin man of little words. He had been holding a sign with our names on it and when Noah had told him that was us, he had all but bowed and said, in a very professional tone, that Mrs. Hemlock was waiting for us back at the house. He had taken our bags like they weighed nothing and walked to the black sedan. The bags didn't actually weigh much; Noah and I had played around with space and weight spells. Yet those same suitcases contained our entire lives.

So much had happened in so little time; everything had needed to fit into those bags. There was no going back.

It didn't seem like everything had happened in the last seventy-two hours. Everything had happened so fast, yet in those three days, enough things had happened to fill an entire month with excitement. None of it had been good excitement though. It had been a nightmare that had yet to end. Hopefully, once we were settled at Grandma's we would get a chance to catch our breath and wake up.

Glancing over and the boy sitting next to me, I had to admit to myself that Noah would be just fine. Once he had processed everything, Noah was always just fine. Even now, there was no tension in his body. His legs were stretched out in front of him as much as the car allowed. His carry-on luggage was on the floor between his feet, unlike mine which I had been unable to let go off since we had left the house that morning. His gray jacket was unzipped, his chestnut hair was ruffled and he looked like he had had a good night's sleep. And while he looked perfectly rested, I knew neither of us had slept much since it had happened.

Turning my attention back to the world outside the car, I focused on the trees and watched passively as they became thinner and thinner until there was nothing but fields. The city followed after that. Streets filled with houses and their gardens. Streets filled with shops. Streets filled with tall buildings. There were people about; it was only late morning. There were businessmen in their suits heading to work and meetings, housewives hurrying into shops, a few teens skipping school. Then it all disappeared again; the buildings and the people. 

The forest had returned.

Through the windshield, I could see that the driver was following a small winding road. Eventually, the house appeared, though 'house' probably wasn't the best term to use. It was a mansion; it was that big. My eyes went to Noah right away as his moved to me. Neither of us really knew Grandma. Mom had always said it was a precaution that we had to take as Hemlocks, whatever that meant. If the house was anything to go on, Grandma had deep pockets. It looked like your typical colonial mansion complete with pillars, balcony, and massive front lawn. The driveway looped around a fountain and the car followed silently until it came to a stop at the front steps.

I was practically lying across Noah's lap, trying to get a better look at the place that was going to be home. "I bet it's one of those houses that's been completely preserved like a museum," I muttered to my brother.