Eye of the Coven: Season 2

Season 2, Episode 1: Come Along Now

JADE

Jade Waithe looks up at Quarta Luna Academy after making her way through the path leading up to the school. She purses her lips, disappointed in the scarce amount of witches bustling from building to building. Jade looks over at the greenhouse, where her herbology class was held. Her eyes avert to the Aradia House to the right of the grounds, where she slept in the beginning of the semester. The same building where a plague witch lead her up to her bed when she slept walk back into Salem from Essex. The lake, where she would watch Minx Montgomery practice vitalum vitalis. There's the main building, where she said the last words to her boyfriend, Heath, before they broke up. And where she shared a heart-to-heart with her sister about her being involved in that fucked up coven. She told her that she loves her before running off under that willow tree, near the lake.

The same willow tree that she died under. Its long curtained branches hang low, stopping above the blades of grass sprouting out from the earth. The braided branches looming over the trunk to cast a puddle of darkness underneath.

Jade's newly chin-length hair is wavy, her new black streaks boosting her confidence as she makes her way towards the main establishment of the academy. Her all black dress is tight around her extra thin body, ankle boots sinking into the lawn as she furthers herself for the main steps. Classes must've just ended because she feels the eyes of students watching her from corridor windows, some of them gawking as they come out the double doors.

Maybe they're staring at her heavy black makeup. Or her septum ring. Maybe it's the tattoo on her forearm and ribs. But they can't see those so it has to be her appearance alone. Jade doesn't look at any of them as she makes her way into the school. Her mom told her that she needs to stop by the office to let them know she's back and to put her on the roster and that she wants a new room. Not the same one she was given in the beginning of the semester.

"Jade?" A familiar voice asks from the stairs leading to the second floor ahead.

Her old friends crowd the bottom of the steps, blinking. The Thorne Twins mirror one another's confused looks with knitted eyebrows and parted lips. Ephraim Carraway glances at Scarlet Vidal. Riley Finley nervously fiddles with her tarot cards. Minx stands in front of them, her arms folded. They look like a very goth version of the Scooby gang. Just by the sight of them, her stomach turns. Instant reflex.

"Jade." Bandit speaks for them all. "Hi...

"Where have you been?" Ephraim asks.

"We've been trying to get a hold of you." Riley says gently.

"I know." That's all Jade can manage to say. She averts her eyes away, willing herself to stand up straight to keep forward. She feels last night's liquor bubbling up in her stomach, threatening to spill out her mouth.

Jade adjusts her studded black jacket as she turns down the hallway some more, the witches parting like the red sea. She's sure that everyone must've heard about her death a month ago. She isn't surprised that they're ogling at her the way they are. She would be staring at a dead person like they are, too.

~~~(End song)~~~

ONE MONTH EARLIER, HALLOWEEN NIGHT.

SCARLET

Scarlet watches as Minx's life energy nearly drains her the longer she keeps her hands on Jade. The sky is a bowl above them, filled with stars and a moon so full it's as though it has a front seat to Jade's demise. The sleep demon that feeds off dead people in their sleep is going to arrive at any minute and will take Jade's body with him. Or her. Apparently demons can be females, too. Scarlet fought one herself in the dream state while under the spell with the witches she's sitting with now. Scarlet obviously won, of course. That demon sucked at being a demon.