The Winter Witch

Aara: Her secret shadow

Aara woke up to the blaring sound of her alarm. She over slept and was running late AGAIN to her job at the Artisanal "Pressed Loaf" make your own sandwich nook. As one of the more trendy spots in town, she got the job after realizing her degree in interior design was not going as planned and volunteering definitely wasn't putting food on the table. As she swam through the piles of clothes, shoes, and bags to find her apron she came across a picture of her and Caleb at her family Christmas party. Telling him how she feels before he leaves for Schathsfield may change her life.

She scrambles to find her purse and apron and darts out the door. Jumping into her 1995 Jeep she whistles off into the cool April morning. The morning smelled like the first day of school. That warm but cool wetness in the air. Aara is already thinking about her manager Tim and his disapproving eyes there to greet her as she arrives. 

He told her "You're walking on flatbread Aara" 

She knew her days there were numbered. She couldn't help it. This job was disposable to her and she could give a damn about Tim and his corny sandwich jokes. 

"Aara mayo take the shift Mike called in for Tuesday evening?" he said to her last week. She would roll her eyes hard every time he spoke, she though one day they'll fall out and I could just go home. 

In a bazillion years, rent was due and she had already skirted work a day and a half last week and hoped her tips would make up for it. She mostly worked midday shifts so the lunch and dinner rush is where she made some serious bank.

Lurking in the shadows as she gets ready for work was Cataliana. One of the powerful sorceresses that her grandmother had banished all those years ago. "she will pay for this some way or another" Cataliana was not phased about killing an innocent just for her powers. In her mind, she had to rule the world and there was no one that could stand in her way. That is without being obliterated.

She devised a plan to lure Aara into the darkness and either use her for evil or kill her to get what she wanted.

~ Cataliana followed Sahara to the "Pressed Loaf" keeping a safe distance away. As she started her shift Cataliana watched her and thought he was a carbon copy of her grandmother she had known all those years ago. It seemed like another life time. There was so much that she wanted to accomplish. World domination, an army of magic slaves, a court of loyal and obedient helpers. Henchmen to carry out her every will to anyone that crossed her. All of this was now in squalor because of one foolish girl who did not even know the power her mind possessed.

Aara tended to her tables and joked with the sandwich attendant as she whisked about the cafe. She was so fluid and graceful, take away the shop and the dirty plated and you think you were watching swan lake.

"What a waste" she thought. "All of her talent and pristine demeanor put to waste in this food shack." The Pressed Loaf to Cataliana was sucking up her time that she could be using to prune Aara for world domination.

But how would she get to Sahara? The cafe was always full of people and there was no way for her in her very stand out state to get close to her and execute her hateful plan.

Then it came to her. It was a risky decision, but she knew she had no other choice. Some 75 years ago her mother, an even more powerful sorceress than she had given her a gift and until now it had been of no use to her.