Katelyn and The Witch Party

Chapter 6: The Truth

 "You are a witch," he spoke very quietly.

"No," she replied quickly even though she knew it was not convincing and even though she knew that he knew better. Her hands were sweating again, but it was a different kind of sweat. It had nothing to do with her anger moments before, but instead was entirely driven by her fear. One day they would find out and then they would come for her too and destroy her just like they had destroyed Victoria.

"I don't care," he assured her. "I have a necklace, too." He showed her a green pendant around his neck. That's not possible, she thought, witches are always female. He was probably lying to her and maybe even spying on her. He was probably with the people that were trying to punish witches. She blinked. Why would they even need to spy on her?

She drifted away from him. She steeled her eyes on the distant streetlights. "I am going to leave," she resolutely declared.

Calmly, Ki merely responded, "You'll get in trouble if you skip school."

I don't care, she thought forcefully. She did not need school. She just needed a break where all the pain would fade away and all of the past would be undone. She wanted it to be over and even though she knew it never could be. If she let the thought flit over her, maybe it would give her hope. Eventually, all the consequences would flit away, too, in her mind, and the hope would bring her to peace, but it would be fake and they would come after her sooner than if she just did what she was supposed to.

At the beginning of Grade ten, Victoria had continued to supervise her when her parents were away. Her parents had not trusted her. She had stood in the bathroom, staring into the mirror with her hands shaking. A strange red light had darted between her hands, terrifying her. It was just like the light that girl had had in Kindergarten, except that the girl's was blue. After all her fears and doubts about the treatment of witches, she was a witch. She was one of them and she had done nothing. She had taken a glass cup that she had left in the bathroom and dumped the red light into the cup, trying to get it away from her and it had filled the cup, but the light had kept streaming from her hands. She had tried dumping the light down the sink, but it just swirled around and then streamed back towards her and faded into her skin.

When her parents had been distracted, she had smuggled honey into the bathroom, and poured it into the cup, and then had attempted to stick the red magic to it, but it did not work. She had panicked then. She had tried molasses and oil and even sugar, and then she had a muddy mixture of strange kitchen items with the red light floating around amidst them. The mixture settled and then it was one colour: a dark reddish-amber. She had poked it with the pointer finger of her right hand while her left hand had trembled continuously. The mixture had been about the consistency of new paint. She had poured more of the red light into it, forcefully this time, shattering the glass and separating the contents all over the counter and the floor. Her parents had left by this time.

"Katelyn?" Victoria had coughed, sounding strangely like she was being choked.

Katelyn had touched the molasses, but it had seemed to have the grainy texture of sugar, while the red light on the floor had been sticky like honey. They had not separated quite as well as she had thought they had.

"Katelyn?" Victoria had gagged, more desperately this time. "We will all fall one day..." It had been the second warning. She must have known her death would come soon.

Katelyn had opened the door. "What?"

Victoria had held what had appeared to be an inhaler, but a distinct stream of green dust flowed around her face, even though she had it firmly covered by her mouth. She had slid down the wall, closing her eyes. She had stood up abruptly, opening her eyes. "Honey—" her eyes had fixed on Katelyn "—you are a witch." Victoria had not been speaking of Katelyn as "honey," but instead she had meant the actual honey. Katelyn had glanced behind her. All the ingredients were gone.