The Witching Hour

Chapter 3 - Meeting

As soon as Ivy entered the shop, her cell phone rang off the hook. It was as if the three little bells on the door handle sent up a signal to the universe. Text messages rolled in from the group along with a few missed calls from her mother. Opting to avoid the conversation with the others, she redialed the latter.

"Hi Mom." Ivy tried to fake a smile in her voice. She jumped around the shop with a spritzer in her hand. The plants wouldn't water themselves.

"Hi sweets. How are you?" Gale Vale asked, busying herself on her side of the line.

Ivy paused just long enough to alert her mother. A scrunch of her nose gave away what she felt, and despite this solely being an audio call, Gale always knew best.

"Tell me everything is OK and you're not still curled up in your bed," the woman demanded.

Ivy rolled her eyes, thankful that they couldn't see each other right now. Ever since she moved to Oregon, her mother constantly checked up on her as if she feared something terrible would happen.

It did – just not to her

Ivy shook her head, trying to dispel the thoughts. She thought if she shook hard enough the thoughts would return to the box she created in her brain. She didn't need to think about her. She didn't need to be reminded of the pain she went through after her disappearance. Nothing had been the same, and nothing will ever be the same. With the nightmares rearing their ugly head, Ivy didn't need to mention those. Gale would either rush out to be with her or insist she return home, wherever that may be this year.

"Mom, I swear I'm fine." Ivy sighed tapping her finger rapidly against the counter after having finished her circle around the store.

She wanted to get back to work. She had a lot of flowers to repot and more bouquets to make. Her mother would never understand this, as she still hadn't visited her. Gale didn't even know that her own daughter had discovered her gifts.

"Ivy..." Gale breathed, pausing for a second as if she wanted to say something even more dramatic.

Starting to zone out and become bored, Ivy ran her hand over the flower in front of her. Instantly it began to bloom, and she felt that giddiness once more. That giddiness filled her to the core and made her smile from ear to ear. Just as it washed over her so did the pain. The flower crumbled before her eyes, and Ivy dashed the plant away in frustration. It landed with a thud, the pot shattering and dirt spreading everywhere.

"Crap," Ivy muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" her mother asked quickly.

Ivy ran her hand through her curls and sighed. "Nothing mom, I ran into a table and Hunter's coffee cup fell over."

Gale hummed, and Ivy wasn't sure if she believed the lie. "All right, well I better get back to work." Gale easily sensed that her daughter was done with this conversation. "Talk to you soon...love you."

"Love you too, mom." Ivy hit the red button on the iPhone screen.

Groaning, she knelt down to pick up the pieces of the pot to throw them away. Ivy went back to the scene of the accident and scooped her hands up, the dirt starting to levitate in the air. She motioned for it to land in the plastic cup next to the pile.

"Sorry little buddy," she whispered to the plant. The bud started to pop up from the dirt but stopped in fear of whether Ivy would dash it away again. She set it on the counter next to the register and headed for the back room where her work awaited her.

Ivy prepared her workstation with the tools and turned her music on through her Bluetooth speaker. Right as she went to press play, the door to floral shop opened, signaled by the bells. Ivy let out a heavy sigh and headed for the front room, banging into the wall in front of her since she didn't look where she was going.

"Damnit," She rubbed her forehead.

Hearing the chuckles, Ivy straightened up as her eyes met who awaited her. Antonella Mishal, Aura Mae Thomas and Marina Marlowe stood around the shop waiting for her to exit the back. It had been a while since they had all been in the same room after Ella and Ivy almost came to blows.

The shop pulsed with tension as the four remaining members of the Pentacle stood in the same room. It didn't help that each of them were annoyed with one another for varying reasons. Well, all except Marina.

Everyone loved that girl, but it helped that she was the empath and the youngest. Her water powers helped her with that skill, and nobody could stay mad at her. Marina stood closest to the counter examining the freshly repotted plant. She leaned close to it, her hair practically falling into her face. Ivy approached her first and gave her a hug. Ivy always meant to visit the youngest member at the teashop she worked at, but she always thought of some excuse to avoid it.

Next in her line of vision was Aura. She was the witch that specialized in air and also being the flakiest of the bunch. As a journalist, Aura was constantly on the go and forgot about a lot of things that were obviously not as important to her. She was the first to process and accept her disappearance. Ivy had been so mad at the witch and her flippant attitude. In reality, Aura used those social skills to keep digging into her case when she wasn't working. Ivy never came to realize this, opting to push everything and everyone back.

"Aura." Ivy gave her a weak hug.

Finally, at the end of the room sat Antonella Mishal. She lounged like a cat in the wrought-iron chair with one arm casually draped across its neighbor and her legs crossed. Ella, as they called her, played with a small fireball in her hand, ignoring the fact that she could torch all the biodiversity in the store. Ivy's nose twitched in frustration and lack of respect. The vines in the store reacted to her and worked their way toward the perceived threat.

Ella was the hot head and thought she knew better as the eldest of the group. While being extremely organized, she didn't always think before acting. Her bluntness made her seem cold and rude.

"Stop those things before I torch them right here and now." Ella glared. The vines instinctively stopped but didn't retreat.

"That wasn't me," Ivy confessed honestly. She didn't always have control over her powers. As she came to the craft late in life – discovering her powers in college – they sometimes took on a life of their own.

Ella rolled her eyes. Marina squeaked as she could feel the truth in Ivy's words, but she refrained from getting in the middle of the warring witches.

"Ivy, you've ignored us long enough." Ella glanced at the fireball she still tossed in her hand. With a quick movement, she extinguished it and closed the gap between the two.

"We need to talk about that nightmare we all just had. And no, you don't get to ignore us like those messages on your phone."