There's Witches In Those Mountains

t w o

*****************AUTHOR'S NOTE*****************

Here's a link to a playlist that accompanies this entire story, updated DAILY.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/40fNHonHOnIPYwby75jhmH

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"Don't you think I could do that to you, too, if you tell my secrets?"

He nodded his head. "Fine, I admit that I underestimated your powers. Your secret is safe with me."

"Well, good. How old are you and where are you from?"

"I'm forever seventeen, I live downtown in Betsy Layne with my family."

"Forever seventeen, huh?" She began to pace around him, looking him up and down. He was very pale like she was, but a different, more cold sort of pale. A dead sort of pale. His hair fell just above his shoulders, dark black. His eyes were like crystals of amber. He was well built but soft and bravely walking through the woods barefoot. It confused her but excited her at the same time. She snapped out of her gazing and looked up at him, giving him a soft smile. "I'm seventeen as well."

Jacob smiled. "And you live here? Where is this place, anyway?"

"Honaker," she turned to look back at the path. The sun was starting to set. She mentally kicked herself for not bringing her phone to use as a flashlight on the way back to her house. Lydia groaned to herself quietly, hating that she had to leave this pretty boy to himself so early in the night. But she really had to go home. "It's getting late and I can't see well, so I'll definitely get lost if I don't get home soon."

"I can walk you up the path if you want," he replied. "I can see well and I'd like to get to know you better."

Lydia bit her lip. She had contemplated rejecting his offer, but he'd already seen her naked, so it wouldn't be too bad to show him the way to her house, right? There was nothing against the rules she set for herself that said she couldn't at least let this guy do something good for her, especially since he had already caught in her a very compromising and vulnerable position. She nodded and started on the path. After a few seconds, she heard his footsteps through the leaves. He soon caught up to her.

"So, you're a witch?" Jacob asked.

Lydia nodded. "I mainly work in the kitchen with my grandmother, but I do like to go outside to do my spells. It keeps me closer to my ancestors." He nodded. She pulled robe tighter to her and threw the blanket over her shoulder. "I have never told anybody about my craft, most people around here are Christians and would absolutely try to burn me at the stake. You promise to keep my secret?" She asked, needing reassurance. Even she wasn't confident in her ability to follow through with the threat she made earlier to Jacob.

"If you promise to keep mine." Jacob responded.

"That you're a vampire?"

"Yeah. It certainly wouldn't end well for my family, and I cherish them more than anything in this world."

"Of course, I don't have enough people in my life to tell that sort of secret to anyway." She looked ahead as the light from the front yard became visible. "You go to Betsy Layne High School?"

"Yeah," he answered. "I'm guessing you do as well?"

Lydia nodded.

They both approached her house. It was a large brick house that was almost shaped like a log cabin. It was well built, built by her family in the late 1800s, long before anyone had settled the land in that area. It was well-cared for as well, constantly remodeled to keep up with modern technology while also keeping its vintage vibes. It was a house Lydia could appreciate.

Lydia looked over at Jacob as she came to a stop in the front yard. "This is where you stop. Here are the ground rules: we don't talk to each other, we don't look at each other, neither one of us exists. We are two separate people running separate lives. That's how we will keep our secrets. Got it?"

He nodded. "I can't promise that I won't look your way since I've already seen you naked, but I can promise I won't say hi and I promise I won't walk up to you."

She nodded and stepped up onto the front porch. He stayed in the yard, not moving a single inch past the beginning of the sidewalk. She looked back at him. "Goodbye, Jacob."

He smiled at her. "Goodnight, Lydia. See you at school tomorrow."

She scowled at him as he laughed and turned around. The way the setting sunlight cut through the trees and reflected around him was breathtaking, and she couldn't help but let out a gasp. He didn't seem to hear it, though, and started to run in the direction he came.He was absolutely breathtaking. He didn't sparkle like the vampires in Twilight did, but there was certainly something magical to him. Maybe it was all of that human blood he drank. She shuttered at the thought of him one day possibly drinking her blood.

She turned and opened her front door. Her grandmother was sitting at the kitchen table, reading the Whitt family book of shadows by candlelight in the dark, making small corrections to whatever spell or passage she was looking at.

"Did you get it done?" she asked nonchalantly, not even bothering to look up from her book.

"Yeah," Lydia replied. She flipped the light on and went to the sink to pour herself a glass of water from the filter pitcher. She could hear her grandmother sigh in frustration (as she hated paying for electricity) but Lydia couldn't be bothered to worry about her feelings. She swallowed her fear of telling her grandmother this as she said, "A boy found me just after I finished up. It caused quite a fright for me in my spirit. It shook me from my meditation and everything."

She looked up from her book. "Were you naked?"

"It was quite embarrassing, actually-"

"You dumb child," she laughed, throwing her head back. "Don't you know any better than to be naked in the woods? We're only a few miles from the main town, we aren't exactly isolated."

Lydia rolled her eyes and flipped the light back off. She walked through the living room and up the staircase with her glass of water while her grandmother still rolled in laughter. Her grandfather was already asleep in his bed. Things were peaceful in the house.

She opened her bedroom door and walked in, turning on the lamp next to her bed and setting her mobile alter on the floor, sliding it under her bed. She sat down at her vanity and fixed her hair into braids before wiping her makeup off and pulling on a silk night gown. It was her mother's, something that her grandmother had held on to tailored to fit her when Lydia became of age to receive it. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh, a wave of sorrow coming over her. She really missed her mother these days. She walked over to the bed and climbed in, ready to retire for the night. She flipped her lamp back off and closed her eyes.