Tea Leaves and Diamond Bracelets

Witches' Feast

Match Twenty-Three: Witches' Feast:

Summer will be ending in two weeks. The nightcomers love the fall. Halloween is their favorite day. Arthur has embraced them. He walks around with a demented smile on his face. They placed a crown of dried flowers on his head. There seems to be no one home inside.

Tonight was going to be a special night.

For weeks, neighbors had been wondering what was going on in Arthur's flat. It always looked so dark. Nobody went in there. Arthur wandered around outside as if in a daze. He doesn't even look dressed to go outside. They even wondered where the rest of him went with his weight. Meanwhile, there were women bringing dead flowers into the flat. None of them ever speak to them. Well, only one spoke to the neighbors.

Today, Allison stretched her neck around. She felt a pair of prying eyes upon her. The nightcomer turned to the hedge next to her.

"Good morning!" she shouted, waving. An old lay quickly stood up with a cup of tea in her hand.

"Um... good morning," she said. "How are you today?"

"Splendid," Allison said. "And yourself?"

"Fine, I guess..." the old lady said. Her voice trailed off. She wanted to ask more questions, but something about Allison's presence warned her not to.

"Can I help you?" the nightcomer asked. The old lady quickly shook her head.

"No, no!" she said. She turned and ran back into her flat. Allison smiled and shook her head.

"Strange woman," she muttered to herself. The nightcomer turned and walked into the flat. She had other things on her mind to think about.

The flat smelt like a corpse. It's always cold inside. They've always had the lights turned off. Arthur sat at the TV in a daze. The sisters didn't bother him. He's not needed for now. They have him broken enough. The nightcomers had work to do around the flat.

The nightcomers threw flowers around the floor. This was part of the ritual. This flat needed to be blessed by the earth and darkness. Preparation would take three days. Hecate filled the bathtub with cold water. She spilled sand into the bottom. The nightcomer threw jasmines into the water as well. After Hecate cut off the water, she covered up the tub. She walked out the bathroom and turned off the lights.

Lucy sprinkled ash on the dried flowers. Sage hung from the ceiling. She reached up and straightened one them. Every door in the flat had to be opened. Same with the windows. One candle had to set in the window. Don't light them yet. Those will be saved for the ritual. That would take place within three days' time.

Allison had been counting down to this moment. Too many time loops made the possibility seem so far away. Tandeki finally managed to move forward for a change. Six gates in Ikebukuro were open. They couldn't find the seventh one yet. In the meantime, they had that ritual to prepare for.

First came burning the sage. One of the younger daughters used her power to light it.

"Not too much," Allison said. "We don't want to burn the house down."

"Yes mother," the young nightcomer said. The scent of the sage filled the room. It reached Arthur as he sat in front of the TV. Something suddenly triggered in his brain. What was left of him couldn't trace what it was. But, it took him back to a past that he never thought that he had. The thoughts alone made him shiver.

-London, 1970's-

He loved his new friends. Ever since that party back in the summer, they never left him. They were better than real people. They didn't try to change him. Pressures of the real world didn't exist between them. They all liked him just the way that he was. His friends were not "normal". They took on different shapes and colors. They always floated around him. The bright colors made him smile. He reached up to touch one of them. His fingers went through their see-through bodies. They didn't seem to mind that he tried to touch him. Yes, they did talk to him. He would talk back to them like they were normal people. Sometimes, he would laugh along with them.

It was all that he could to keep from crying.

He got lost in his room for hours at a time. Sometimes even days. He always had a crooked smile on his face. His family and real friends wondered what was happening to him. Some had their suspicions. He started to push them away. Why couldn't they let him be happy? He was just fine with his friends that only he could see. They took very good care of him. The real people couldn't see it that way.

No one could pull him back out. His family and real friends' voices couldn't reach him. He doesn't wish it to be so. His world began to shrink the more he followed Alice down her rabbit hole. What he didn't realize was that his days were burning away. The happy colors blinded him from reality. All of his real friends had no choice but to abandon him. His family started to do the same. It didn't matter to him. All that mattered was his friends in his head. They would never walk away from him. They would never betray him. They were always there for him.

Probably the reason why his body was found in his flat weeks later alone and forgotten.

-Reality-

Allison leaned down to Arthur's side. She kissed him on the cheek.

"Don't you worry," the nightcomer whispered. "You are just seeing your past life right now." Tears rolled down the vacant man's cheeks.

"They are only temporary," Allison whispered. "You won't wake up until after the festival. Sleep well, my lovely." She kissed him on the cheek and headed to the kitchen. He sat there, motionless. Surely someone had to be asking questions. Someone had to be at this point.

Meanwhile, the nightcomers are about done with the prep work. Allison watched as her daughter pushed a whole lamb into the sink.

"Everything about set?" she asked.

"Yes!" the younger of the sisters said. Allison smirked as she rubbed her hands together.

"Excellent," she said. For too long she had waited for this. In her mind, the supreme counted up how she got here.

Allison used to be on her own. In the begging, no one seemed to notice her. She had no origin. Most would say that she came out of nowhere. Lucky for her, Allison had her wits, beauty, and skills to lay down the first brick to her plans. She didn't have to rely on a man to get her where she was.

In those days, she had to be careful. Witches were persecuted in those days. The smart flew to the new world in the west. She stayed in the United Kingdom and hid plain sight. Allison bid her time as she formed her ultimate plans in her head. She had everything set for creating the new world. Sure, there were some pieces missing, but those would be falling into her lap for years to come.

Right now, she needed to focus accomplishing that first step.

-Present Day-

Allison looked at her cell phone. The feast would begin at sundown. The ritual was to begin at midnight. She looked over at Arthur sitting in the living room in front of the TV. The nightcomer smirked.

"Just a little bit longer," she said to herself. Allison shoved her phone back into her pocket.

"Girls!" she shouted. "Time to finish with the dinner!"

"Yes mother!" her daughters said. Meanwhile, Arthur sat in the living room dazed with tears in his eyes. Despite being broken, he knew the horrors that would unfold for him tonight.