The Romantic Art of Bitchcraft

The Big Bad Wolf

   Zoe had been missing for five days when Benson showed up.
   Madison had been laying on her bed, messing around on her laptop in a desperate attempt to distract herself from the eerily empty feel of the room. It wasn't like the blonde was worried for her roommate. Honestly, she could care less about what her ex- girlfriend was doing at the moment. Was it like Zoe to take an unexpected leave of absence from teaching, without telling anyone why or where she was going? No, not at all; not even a little bit, actually. Did Madison feel guilty that she was the last person to see the brunette, and that it had been the night they got into a fight and broke up? Still no!
   Or, not really, anyway. It had been mutual, more or less, and only kind of Madison's fault. And it wasn't as though she had done anything to Zoe personally, except maybe to put her in a bad headspace when she left, thereby opening her up to any witch-hunters that might have been in the area or demons or god-knows-what-else.
   Okay, confession: Madison did feel guilty.
   And worried.
   In fact, she was scared out of her mind over all the things that could have happened to the younger witch. Her brain wasn't helping any, either, only trying to fill in the blanks with the most horrendous of possibilities, all of which made Madison wipe angrily at the tears in her eyes, but the terrible thoughts and the flood of tears wouldn't desist until a stern bark brought the blonde out of her torturous revere.
   Madison looked up to see a dog sitting on the floor next to her bed, its tail waving tentatively.
   It was a giant-ass dog, too, seemingly about half Madison's size sitting down. It was covered in dark brown fur, with a pointed face and ears that reminded Madison of a wolf.
   A wolf, the blonde realized. Shit!
   There's a goddamn wolf in my room.
   "Okay," Madison breathed, regarding the creature that simply sat next to her bed, eying her with those honey-brown eyes that reminded her of Zoe, its mouth closed in such a way that it appeared as though the animal was deep in thought. "This is fine. This is... This is great. This is just great. I'm trapped on my fucking bed, with a goddamn wolf in my room. No cause for panic or anything."
   The wolf let out a breath, that sounded eerily like a sigh of exasperation, and then it stood up and stuck its nose towards Madison.
   "Ah, ah, ah!" the blonde scolded, on her wobbly feet in an instant, trying to run across the squishy mattress. "Back up right now, unless you want one of Zoe's books thrown at you!"
   At the mention of her missing roommate, the wolf perked its head up. It barked once, placing a paw on the bed.
   "Get back!" Madison yelled, using her telekinesis to launch one of Zoe's spell books at the back of the thing's head.
   The wolf yelped, its canine voice sounding suspiciously as though it had just said ow. But it took two steps back, giving Madison a wolfish glare.
   "What?" the former movie star demanded. "It's not like I didn't fucking warn you."
   The wolf sat down with a huff, still glaring.
   "Madison?" a voice called from down the hall. "Is everything alright?"
   It was Cordelia, and at the sound of the Supreme's voice, the wolf whipped its head towards the door, its tail tucked tight and its ears pinned flat against its head.
   "Uh, everything's..."
   What? Madison huffed. Fine? Normal? I'm stuck at this dumbass school indefinitely, my girlfriend is missing and probably fucking dead, and now there's a goddamn wolf in my room. I don't think there's a one-word answer for all that shit.
   Cordelia sighed, and the sound of footsteps suggested that she was coming into the room.
   Apparently the wolf realized it as well, because it gave a soft whimper of panic and dove under the bed, causing a frown to crease Madison's brow.
   "Who were you talking to in here?" Cordelia asked, standing at the door and noting the obviously empty room.
   "No one," Madison snapped. "Myself. It's a habit most actors acquire, you know."
   Cordelia put her hands up in surrender.
   "I just wanted to check in and see how you were handling things," she explained.
   "Things?" Madison scoffed.
   "Zoe," Cordelia clarified, her voice soft as her gaze dropped to the empty bed across from the small witch.
   "You mean the fact that she's missing?" Madison growled, her fists clenched in anger. "Or that she walked out of here last Tuesday and hasn't been back since? Or are you referring to the fact that the last thing I said to her was that I'd rather be back in Hell than spend one more second with her? Is any of that what you mean, Cordy? Because if so, then you should be delighted to learn that no, I am not handling it well! Unlike you, I can't just shrug it off when something terrible happens to someone I love! I can't just watch my girlfriend turn to dust and then go on and become Supreme! Believe it or not, I have a heart!"
   "Just forget it then," Cordelia huffed, turning to leave as the young witch clearly wasn't appreciative of her visit.
   But she stopped, glancing back at the girl.
   "You should know, you aren't the only person here who feels Zoe's absence," she spat, her eyes glittering with unshed tears while her voice shook with barely-contained rage. "All those years you were gone, it was her and Queenie by my side. Not you, not Mallory or any of the other students, and not even Misty. I spent more time with her than anyone, including you. I feel her loss more than anyone; so why don't you think about that before you start hurling accusations?"
   Then she stormed away, leaving Madison alone with the monster under her bed. Literally.
   The blonde's anger burned through her veins, and her telekinetic rage took over. It slammed the door in the settling dust of her Supreme and it busted the glass in the vanity mirror and it sent the desk chair sailing into the wall, putting a whole in the drywall. All that, and still her blinding fury was nowhere near satisfied so she leaped to her feet to grab her hairdryer from the bathroom and she flung it at the mirror in there. She picked it back up and slammed it against the wall, over and over until she slumped down into a heap, her sobs wracking her body so she couldn't stay standing.
   She jumped slightly, feeling a cold, wet object touch her bare arm.
   It was the fucking wolf.
   "Go away," she told it, her voice wavering as she pushed at its chest.
   It shook its head, emitting a pitiful whine, and it tried to stick its head against her chest.
   "I said GO AWAY!" Madison screamed, shoving at the thing hard enough that it skittered across the tiled bathroom floor, bumping into the wall.
   It whined again, and something about the way it looked at her with those mournful doe-brown eyes, looking so irrefutably apologetic and longing, made the pieces click inside Madison's brain.
   She regarded the wolf, its light brown fur splashed with gold, its graceful slender frame, and those expressive dark eyes.
   The wolf stared back, almost waiting for her to respond, to show that she understood.
   Madison's heart beat a mile a minute as she took a shaky breath, opening her mouth to speak.
   "Zoe?"
   The wolf's ears folded back slightly in shame, but-- after a moment that felt like an eternity-- the thing nodded its big furry head.
   That was it; Madison lost it.
   It started out as a giggle, but it took less than a second to grow into deep guffaws, so strong the blonde had to clutch her stomach and lean her head almost on the floor. When she looked up, her wolf-girlfriend was not amused, giving her a glare that clearly meant now is not the time! but Madison couldn't find it in her to care.
   This whole time, she and the rest of the Coven had been worried sick about what had become of the dear little witch, and all this time Zoe had been in hiding, likely embarrassed about one of her spells going oh-so wrong.
   Madison was never going to let her live this down!
   Wolf-Zoe barked, trying to get the blonde's attention, who was legit rolling on the bathroom floor, tears of laughter streaming down her face. A noise meant to grip the blonde's attention-- somewhere between a snarl and another sigh-- sounded from the wolf witch.
   When Madison managed a glance, she was met with an are you done? face of exasperation.
   "Oh, holy shit," Madison laughed, wiping away tears. "You are a dumbass. Do you know Cordelia almost sent the entire Coven out looking for you? The only reason she didn't is because Queenie pointed out that if someone had attacked you, sending out a whole school of distracted and worried witches might result in even more missing students."
   The wolf hung her head, looking guilty.
   "Stop it," Madison scolded with a giggle. "It's funny now; you're alive! You're fine!"
   The blonde had to bite her lip to keep from adding, you're a genuine furry to her reasons why it was okay to enjoy the situation, even if it was a huge plus.
   The wolf let out another exasperated sigh, clearly over her girlfriend's antics.
   "Whatever," Madison yawned. "Let's get Cordelia to change you back. Maybe now that I know you aren't dead or dying I can finally get a goodnight's sleep."
   But the wolf caught Madison's sleeve in her mouth, shaking it furiously as she tugged the girl back away from the door.
   "What is wrong with you?" the movie star snapped, ripping her arm out of the wolf's grasp. "Don't you want Cordelia to fix you?"
   Wolf-Zoe barked, shaking her head. Then she lifted a paw, jutting it out toward the blonde.
   "What?" Madison asked. "You want me to fix you myself or something?"
   The wolf nodded.
   "Why?"
   Wolf-Zoe's ears drooped, and she let out another whine, avoiding Madison's gaze.
   "Oh," Madison said, rolling her eyes at the enchanted animal. "You don't want her to know."
   It wasn't a question, and so the wolf didn't bother with a response.
   "Fine," Madison sighed. "Do you at least know which spell or potion or whatever will bring you back?"
   No response.
   "Right," Madison grimaced. "Of course you don't."
   Wolf-Zoe whined, putting her head down on the bathroom floor.
   "Hey, don't feel bad for me," Madison chided. "You're the one who's going to be stuck as a wolf indefinitely."
   The wolf made another sigh-whine noise, sounding as if she'd just said yeah...
   "You know..." Madison smirked. "If you don't want Cordelia to find out about you, then I'm going to have to give you a new name."
   Wolf-Zoe scrambled up to her feet, already growling in disagreement.
   "Relax," Madison waved her off. "I was just going to call you by your last name. Benson isn't too unusual for a dog, and if anyone asks I'll just say I named my new pet after my missing roommate."
   Benson tilted her head, considering it.
   Madison smiled at her new dog.
   "Just think of it as your fursona."
   Benson gave her a look to convey that that sort of reasoning wasn't helping her case. But she let out a groan and offered the blonde her paw, as though ready to shake on their strange new deal.
   Life at Miss Robichaux's was about to get very interesting.

*Heyyo, so I hope y'all enjoyed this one-shot because I was actually thinking of making this into its own short fanfic, maybe like ten or so chapters. Comment if that's something you'd be interested in reading, and if not I'll stick to the one-shots. Also, y'all should check out One Day At A Time on Netflix (it's a great show that's going to get cancelled unless it gets more views, so I'd be forever grateful if y'all could give it a watch). Anyways, thank y'all for reading and I hope y'all are having a fantabulous day!*