Witch (Supernatural #2)

10: Do Not Disturb

Privacy, verb.

1. The state of being apart from other people or concealed from their view; solitude; seclusion.
2. The state of being free from unwanted or undue intrusion or disturbance in one's private life or affairs; freedom to be let alone.

***

Monday morning, I pulled on my swimsuit before even leaving the house. I did it for the simple reason that, the second I walked in and saw the pool, all I had to do was take off my clothes and stuff them in my bag. Then I dove straight in. Jamie was already doing laps, looking up just long enough to nod at me.

After what happened Saturday, I welcomed the chance to swim. Between mind-numbing Netflix series Saturday evening to forget about the afternoon ordeal and Sunday's cake-baking marathon, this Monday morning swim was the first real moment I allowed myself to think about what had happened. The water made me feel safe enough to.

My mind went over the conversation, or more exactly, the declarations those hoodie-wearing lunatics had made. We are the Order. We serve God. We hunt those who serve the Devil. Honestly, none of it really surprised me. Clearly, they were too well organized to be a random bunch of people. And when it came to witch hunts, they were usually in the name of God; somehow witches always served the Devil. Again, it was ridiculous to me since I didn't even believe in God or the Devil. Believes aside, why would they think I'd serve evil? Had they seen me use my magic for evil? What had they even seen me do? I honestly couldn't remember ever using magic to do evil. 

Then again, neither had Mom.

As for the rest of what they had said; those who think they can be a god themselves, those who dabble in the dark art, those who have sinned. That was a pretty big list. Give someone enough money and power and they would think they could play God. The dark arts, naturally, referred to magic once more. Those who have sinned, in my opinion, simply clumped together the rest of the world. This wasn't medieval Europe; people weren't as religious as they were back then anymore, if at all. This was the twenty-first century. Most of what we did today would have been evil a few centuries ago. Honestly, if they were stuck in that kind of view, they'd have to kill the whole world.

Which is gonna take them a while if they do it one person at a time, I thought to myself.

While I was doing my latest lap in a half-hearted front crawl, I gave up and floated face down, staring at the tiles at the bottom of the pool. I was happy to be in the water and to finally try to digest what had happened Saturday afternoon. At the same time, I was also completely pissed that that was what occupied my mind. Instead, I should have been thinking about how things would be between Ken and me after Friday's date. It didn't feel like we had gone to the movies only three days ago; it felt like several weeks had passed.

Out of nowhere, someone appeared underneath me, face up. A straight face and goggled stared back at me. Then a smile appear. Totally freaked out, I pulled my face out the water with a scream. Seconds later, the person appeared in front of me, laughing. I was ready to drown them on the spot. Instead, I made my way to the side. The laughter only followed.

"Isla, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Screw you, Ken. Come near me and I'll drown you!"

He only laughed harder at that. He let me swim a few more laps at a furious pace before he approached me again as I was taking a breather. This time, he was above water level and made sure I saw him coming. By then, I had already moved on.

"How are you doing?" he asked me, putting his arms on the edge of the pool and hanging next to me.

"I'm pissed," I told him quite frankly. When he opened his mouth, I knew he was going to apologize. "Not at you; you scared me but I'm not holding a grudge over a joke. I'm pissed because Saturday afternoon ruined what could have been a perfectly good weekend."