Sweet Menace Read online

  Pouring honey over the candles and sprinkling it first with white then black sugar, I repeated the verses over and over. As I was coming closer to the candy house I felt weak and different but that didn’t stop me. That just meant my spell was working. Maybe I was getting good at this thing. Maybe. I hoped for it.

  The access to the street was blocked with tree trunks. Great, I told myself in sarcastic mode. Good I did it, cause I don’t remember the last time I was sarcastic with the girl reflected in the mirror, but I love when I am. It’s just so me.

  If my Maghik weren’t focused on transferring Lilly my powers I would have done something to free the way. Forcing my van to pass over the trunk just got me a broken van. Cursing, I abandoned my not-so-sweet-anymore LuxGen and ran the street towards my perdition.

  I cursed inside one more time. Perhaps Edora was right about my legs. If I could just simply fix them with a wave of a hand… It shouldn’t be so different as to prepare a buffet or a fancy and complicated dessert. If only I wanted to do it.

  Darkness was not a big help and when the street lights were suddenly off I was left in a void so terribly dark I couldn’t see the tip of my shoes. Nevertheless I kept running. The house was not far away. I could feel it as a magnetic force and I was just another insignificant metal lured to perdition. Just when I thought I was right in front of the gate, my leg got stuck and I fell to my face. Ouch! My jaw hurt with the scrape of some pointy rocks. Why people don’t clean their sideways? Hoses are long enough for some reason, people! I finally had my feet released but it hurt badly. It's enough to say that my ankle was sprained? Limp and sprained.

  With luck I’ll make it to the house. With luck, Lilly would make it alive. That was my only concern.

  Chapter 17: Sisterhood

  “Sister, you’re just in time.” -The witch said from inside the house. The door was opened ajar and from the outside I could see candles burning. The candy house was now just an old shack, a shadow of melted clay with no apparent attractiveness.

  There was no reason to enter in tiptoes as it was obvious someone was already expecting me. In spite of my noticeable bravery, I was shaking like a crack addict breaking habit. Touching the pocket of my pant, I felt Lilly’s pony hiding there. Thinking that she needed me gave me the strength I urged. The spell to protect Lilly was in my mind, repeating over and over.

  “Oh, poor thing you are. You should have fixed those wobbly legs.It's hard to understand why you choose to remain weak, full of flaws and imperfections. Oh, well. Better for me. Weak as you are, I’ll be home, filling your space, fulfilling what you didn’t have the courage to do.”

  The one thing I wanted the most was to see the face of this dratted witch. And smash her maybe-cutie nose.

  Lilly was lying a few inches above the floor. Her body extended over a drawing of a pentagram of death. I’ve seen those drawings in many books but never paid close attention. That’s not the kind of Maghik I’m used to.

  “I’m right here, Edora.” -I ventured to say, though I haven’t seen her face yet and wasn’t one hundred percent certain this witch was also Edora. -“There’s no need to keep the girl here. I offer myself in substitution for your sacrifice.”

  Taking the chance, I walked to Lilly’s side. She was petrified with fear and to calm her I whispered that everything would be okay. Why are you lying to her, Morgan? Silently, I asked myself. Why to be so cruel and give her hopes of a life none of us will ever see again?

  “Clever sister.” -The witch answered coming closer to the candle lights. -“Edora. You’re right. But I can always be old Mrs. Regal or an emergency nurse. There’s no limit when you learn to use real magic.”

  Now everything seemed crystal clear to me. What Mrs. Regal had done and said. The mysterious way in which my dagger, with which Patrick was killed, was in her possession. The poison to Sam. And many other things.

  “What Sam has to do with all this?” -I wanted to know.

  “Don’t worry, dear sister. I’ll tell you everything before killing you both. For now, I want to show you something.” -Edora waved her hands, somehow similar to what I do, and a low table appeared in between us. A book appeared in the table, bookmarks separating some pages. -“Please, do me the honor to open it, sister.”

  “Stop calling me sister. I’m not related to you.” -I protested.

  “Humor me, Morgan. Seat and open the book.”

  Trying to win some time, I did as Edora was asking. She was talking nice to me, but also in lovely voice she said she was going to kill both of us. It was a common behavior of crazy people.

  Kneeling in front of the table I saw the book Edora was talking about. The book that stank like rotten flesh. Maybe I grimaced way too noticeable, or my nose twisted at the strong, putrid smell. Edora found my act amusing and she couldn’t help to laugh.

  My fingers were shaking like whipped cream mixed with pudding mix right in the center of the Nineteen Degree Fault with an earthquake of a minimal magnitude of eight in the Richter scale. Trying not to alert Edora of my nervous breakdown, I steadied myself and took a deep breath. She watched over me like if I was a weird specimen found right outside her porch. I wanted to think that I was much more of a threat to her than what she was to me. That I had so many surprises, but maybe she was expecting a trick out of my sleeve any minute now.

  “Come on, Morgan. It’s just a book. Didn’t you go looking for those to know our story? I served it all to you there. Want to know about you? About all of us?” -Edora offered. What if the answers to all my questions were waiting for me to turn the pages? What if my truth was lying inches from my fingers? Who I am? Why I’m here? Where the others just like me are?

  But… What if I didn’t need to know? Perhaps it was wiser to stop poking around my history. The Spy, Spy game has come to climax now and there was no turning back. My hand came to the cover of the book while the little voice inside my head told me not to touch it.

  At the slightest contact I felt the sting of thousand African killer bees all over my body. My fingers burnt hotter than my high-power stainless steel oven. A complaint of pain escaped my lips while Edora made a murmuring noise. Despite the pain and fire burning I didn’t take my hand away but grabbed the cover and opened the book. A green fire emanated from the book. From inside it, a six star shape broke the fire with shadows. Each tip of the star was displaying a symbol of one element. Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Metal, and another symbol I couldn’t recognize. I tried to touch it, hoping it could open a link, like a living map unwinding before my eyes.

  “Maghik. Real Maghik.” -Edora said, answering my uncertainties. -“Not your foodie tricks worth of Food Network.”

  “That’s offensive!” -I dared to protest. My Maghik was as valid as any other magic in the world.

  “Did you feel it?” -She asked coming close to me.

  “Felt what?” -I lied as if I hadn’t felt the burn all over.

  “Read.” -Edora grunted at me.

  “I don’t understand this language.” -I riposted, but I knew it was a lie. Oblivious of my actions, I started reading to myself but she grumbled to make me read aloud. Those strange symbols, that unfamiliar language, suddenly made sense to me. All of a sudden it became recognizable and known. Each word I read in high voice was a piercing pain caused to my body. It burned worst than anything I had felt in my life.

  Once, I tried to defy my powers. I was so confident in myself that I risked in taking a pan out of the oven without kitchen mitts. Water blisters grew from my scalded hands that very day and nothing I did could fix my skin back. The poor cheesecake I was baking ended scattered in the floor and splashed in the walls of my kitchen. The strawberry swirls appeared to be blood stains from a gunfight. Maghik has its limitations. Mine was the pride.

  My arms and hands burned so bad, worst than that time, and I had to stop reading to rub my aching body.

  “Roll up your sleeves.” -She ordered. Hesitantly, I disobeyed her. Edora kneeled in front of me, collecting the he
m of her long black dress and making it a knot between her bent legs. As if I was delaying a life, Edora grabbed one of my hands and rolled the sleeve over my elbow. Not believing what my eyes were seeing, I shut them tightly to toss the images out of my mind. When I blinked back, the marks were still there, real as Edora or as myself. Rolling up her own sleeves, Edora showed me her own bright green tattoos.

  “Sisters.” -Edora explained as if it was obvious. As if weird tattoos coming from Maghik could make us sisters somehow. I opened my eyes wider just to see a series of tattoos that extended from my hands to my arms. Burning scars, glowing in the green of the fire, were drawn in my skin, bulging like a fat centipede.

  Scared, I hastened to close that book. There was no other option than to think it was possessed by the worst of demons.

  “Don’t fear of a book.” -Edora smiled. -“Fear those who live and want to harm you. Like me.”

  I withdrew my hands from Edora’s. She stood still, smiling at me, enjoying my fear. Lilly was now asleep, ignorant of what was happening around her. Silently, I kept repeating the protection spell, knowing deep inside that no one would come to our aid.

  “Whyare you doing all this?” -I asked her.

  “Oh, dear sister!” -Sighing, Edora said with faked pity. -“I have hated you forever. Don’t you remember? I bear in mind every moment. Inside mother’s womb we were together, bound to born simultaneously, holding hands as they expected us to. I knew then who I was, and so did you. You, the good daughter, and me… the evil side of the family. A black sheep. A traitor fated to live in a world ruled by my lovely sister. So, we fought for the first place. It was hard fighting you though. You were a tough bitch even in the womb. So, if I could just get rid of you, I would have no competition for a throne that in the end wouldn’t be of neither of us. Four months before our due date I managed to push you out of our mother, certain that you weren’t ready to survive yet.”

  While I heard Edora I couldn’t withstand her evilness. She caused revulsion on me.

  “And guess what?” -She asked without even expecting for an answer. -“Our darling grandmother, the Queen of Witches and wife of a normal human King, interfered in your favor, saving your life with her strong powers. She knew my intentions and so I knew hers. She hated me despite I wasn’t yet born. And while she had hated you as well, she started getting accustomed to you, so much that she started liking you. In the end, it's my fault you were the firstling. Also is my fault the way you walk but I don’t regret the damage done. I had so much fun harming you!”

  I wanted to erase her words from my head, to return to be ignorant of our kinship. Most of all, I wanted to dispel the sensation of empathy I was feeling for Edora, but it was as hard as trying to pluck a chicken alive. My body needed coffee, a very strong cup of black coffee. My system needed sugar to appease the shaking nervous assault I was suffering.

  “Want to know why I came to kill you?” -Edora asked me after walking away.

  “Because I’m an evil witch.” -I assured, accepting my upcoming death. I had tried to kill a whole town. I was the one to blame for what had happened to other small villages, despite my silence about it. Edora laughed so insanely she had to hold her ribcage to control the pain.

  “I’m enjoying this so much. You’re just like mother. A pure of heart despite the lethal mind. So sweet of you to take all the blame and responsibility and pay the price. So deserver of punishment, my poor older sister!”

  Her words were so impossible to believe. For all this time she had known everything about a past I didn’t understand. She could help me clarify a lot of doubts and fill the gaps in a life that was meaningless before. In spite of that, she just wanted to kill me, her twin sister.

  “Why do this, Edora? Why hate me so much? What did I do to you?” -I asked walking close to the door, hoping she could follow me outside the house. -“Looks like it was utterly unnecessary to create such big drama when it could’ve been so easy to kill me unaware, right behind my own house.”

  Edora looked at me like I had hit bingo. Then, it was something else. This wasn’t just about me. There was something else. Something I overlooked. Revising the events of the last two weeks I made a list of new things close to the time when Edora appeared in my back garden, posing as an innocent and terrified little girl. I was a bridesmaid in a wedding. I met a cute guy. I got in a fight with my cousin’s new husband. The cute guy starts flirting with me. I met his family. He takes me in my first date ever.

  Sam. Everything resumed in Sam. All of these events twirled around him.

  “Does this have something to do with Sam? Or he is just a terrible coincidence in your game?” -I managed to pronounce trying to keep a brave tone of voice. Despite my bravery, I was shaking of fear. Then I remembered her warning right in his family’s house. Of course he had something to do, but something slightly different than the hunting status she said.

  “Oh, Morgan! How smarty you are! The witch suitable to the throne.” -Edora mocked. With a wave of her hand she dismissed my question. With a wave of her other hand, my sister- if I ever can call her that way- threw me against a wood wall.

  “Ouch!” -A grunted protest escaped from deep inside me.

  “It hurts, right? So much better then.” -Edora laughed. -“See, Morgan. Truth is… the covens of witches are gathering soon. The moons to complete the actual Queen’s reign are about to come to term. The Highest Queen Witch must be chosen, but there’s a problem. The scent of royal blood has been recognized in a barren nook, forgotten in the world, trying so hard to pass as a normal human that’s disgusting.”

  Edora twisted her nose to show how sick she felt for my fault.

  “But staying pure, or at least pure enough to take the throne. You had dragged too much attention.”

  Managing my way to stand up, I remain glued to the wall trying to plan something to save Lilly. Hard as it seem, I needed to save myself first.

  “What do I have to do with all this? Whywaste your time harassing me when all you needed to do was claim the throne and rule us all?” -I asked.

  “Always so innocent, Morgan.” -She hissed at me. -“Grandma Guineverè will happily kill me and keep you. If I kill you before she finds you, she’ll have no option but to name me the heiress to her throne. Blood calls blood after all.”

  I considered it. Was a Queen so passive and pleasing to take what’s just left?

  “Or she could kill you for your recurring betrayal and leave the throne without heiress. She can always pick another witch between the covens. Not from blood but from loyalty.” -Defiantly, I told her, but I wasn’t certain of my words. Moreover, I doubted that our so-called grandmother would kill Edora just for killing me.

  “Of course she can kill me. Just as she killed our mother. Without mercy.” -Edora pulled me from the corner in which I was hidden. The satisfaction in her face reflected the fear I had inside. -“Oh, sister. First you meant nothing to me. Killing you was an easy plan. A short visit during the night. Behead my beautiful limp sister and take your head with me to feed my pets in Witch’s Hearth. Then Sam appeared and started following you. Things got interesting. If he was after you it meant you were stronger than any other witch. Strong hunters are drawn by powerful witches. It was going to be interesting to see the hunter kill you. Then you two fell for each other.”

  Launching me to the floor and dragging me by the hair, Edora started pronouncing a strange ritual in a very weird language. I recognized the language as the one of the book. Green flames of fire were drawn in the air and she threw me underneath the symbol.

  “There’s not much that arouses me.” -Edora laughed. -“In our lair we eat dragon flesh. Power, life. That’s how big it is. But killing you will surpass the feeling.”

  I had always thought that I was born cursed. But truth is that the worst curse I had was a twin sister. The death came with her as well as the life. If I was to die, maybe she should die with me too. Trying to call my Maghik while it kept protecting Lilly had me
distraught. I was out of my element as I only learned to control my Maghik in between my kitchen appliances. While Edora continued with her crazy spell, I looked at where Lilly rested. To my consternation, she was wide awake, watching me with curious compassion. She tried to move but silently I warned her not to. That would call Edora’s attention back to Lilly.

  Distracted with the stinky book, Edora flipped from page to page, searching for something. Meanwhile, I took the pony out of my pocket and showed it to Lilly, who smiled shyly at me. I tried to reassure her that everything was going to be fine, that I was going to save her, but I knew it was all lies.

  I heard Edora cursing some words while the greenish pentagram over me starting fading away. Quickly I managed to stand again. The green vapor knotted in my skin and I pushed it away. I urged Lilly to run, gesturing with my hands. She obeyed instantly and I threw myself on top of Edora. We both fell to the floor as obviously I took her by surprise. She tried to push me away but I sat on top of her, as I did with Jerome, and started hitting her in the face. My knuckles cracked against the floor, forcing me to curse through clenched teeth.

  While my sister tried to cover her face from my attack, Lilly was already outside the house. The other pentagram faded away too and Edora’s Maghik stood just dangling in the air hovering over our heads, almost as visible as the steam from a cauldron.

  If power was visible, Edora’s could be seen as solar flares. Moving like a hound of ghosts, Edora’s Maghik tried to overlap with her and be claimed back. My evil sister tried hard to push me away. Extending her hand beyond my head, Edora tried to reach the powers that were ditching her body. Her desperation to touch the density flying over our heads gave me an idea. What if every hard blow I give manages to steal some of her powers?

  Grabbing her head by the side, I knocked her hard against the irregular ground. With the thump, another ghostly tongue left her body and joined the power above us.

  “Stop.” -Edora yelled but I was already tired of her. She had extinguished my patience and killed my empathy somehow. -“It hurts!”