Felix Wilson and the Daughters of Hecate

Chapter One - Something Witchy This Way Comes

Two years later. Maledicti 2014

No one, no matter, how rich or powerful they may be, can see what the future may hold but I didn't need to be blessed with psychic powers to know that Maledicti Secondary Boarding School on the British-Welsh boarder was going to be the absolute pits, a complete living nightmare. As soon as Mum had shown me the prospectus during the summer holiday, I honestly though she was making a cruel joke, the school looked like Dracula's holiday home for when he's in the mood for permanent rain and storms.

According to the prospectus, Maledicti Secondary Boarding School was a refined and prestigious institute for young men and ladies and had pupils attending from ages eleven to seventeen, until they moved into Maledicit International Sixth Form, which was conjoined to the main school. All the while I was being forced to read this mumbo-jumbo, I wanted to go to sleep; I couldn't give two tuppence about whether or not the school had a high academic reputation  -  that got ruined immediately due to the fact it looks like a creepy real life Hogwarts. 

I have to admit, though, that some of the lessons didn't sound too bad and when I say some, I literally mean some. There were obviously the mandatory ones: English, Maths, Science, Ethics and Morality and Physical Education. But I had to pick other five subjects to study. I had to choose from five sections; Ancient Languages; Modern Languages; Humanities; Seperate Sciences and the Studies section. Grudgingly I chose Anglo Saxon English, German, History, Biology and Chemistry, and Occult Studies. Yeah, Occult Studies. Picked that one for the YOLO of it.

See why I didn't want to set foot in Maledicti? PE as well; medieval combat was included as well as modern sports. But no matter how much I protested and resisted, my parents sent me to be educated at Castle Dracula. 

My mum drove our Mercedes up-hill to the school early in the morning on the sixth of September, past all the oak trees and large hedgerows and through forests.

Slowly, the school loomed onto the horizon and I felt like jumping ship and running back home. The building sent a cold shiver down my spine and that doesn't happen easily. I felt as we crossed the drawbridge and approached the gatehouse, which had a load of judgemental dragon statues glaring down at us, and the castle wall, someone was watching us from the castle; my eyes drifted up towards the tallest tower of the castle. I frowned. 

Mum stopped at the gatehouse for a moment. I was looking up at a middle-aged lady in an office, typing away at a computer. She then looked up and looked at my mother. "Yes?" she said. "Can I help you?"

"My son, Felix, starts today," Mum said. "Felix Wilson."

The office lady started typing on her computer again, narrowing her eyes and putting her horn-rimmed glasses on, reading the info on her screen before lighting up and beaming. "Ah yes! Come on in." She smiled down at me. "Welcome to Maledicti, Felix."

Demon lady. 

At long last, Mum parked the car in the small car park in the bailey. All around me were high walls and towers and bodies conjoining the towers together and to the keep and the postern gate. If I thought the pictures had been bad, the real thing was worse. Especially with the amount of gargoyle and dragon statues the size of horses. It didn't help that the sky was inky with no hint of sunshine at all, which didn't help Maledicti's creepiness one bit. Another thing that was creepy was that I saw patches of heather, lavender, sage, mint, roses, basil, chamomile and lilies mixed in with patches of belladonna, henbane and hemlock. Who has poisonous plants growing on school grounds?!

I sunk low into my seat. "Why, oh why, do you punish me?" I said. "What have I ever done to you besides being born?"

"Felix, don't be a drama queen," Mum said, sighing.