Halloween Magic and Mayhem (4 page)

Weirdly, the process felt quite erotic. My eyes caught and stuck with Peter’s as we sucked at each other’s fingers. I’d never noticed his eyes much before. They were a gorgeous blue-green. I felt myself suddenly incredibly drawn to him. Then there was a bang of light and we both staggered back, losing any physical contact.

Iris nodded in satisfaction. “Well done, Emily. A perfect binding.”

“We’ll have to sneak out of the house.” I said, “Otherwise, Duncan will think I’m going to the party without him.”

The other two nodded and we gathered up what we needed and snuck downstairs.

At the front door Peter paused. “This is kind of a big deal for me.” He explained as I accidentally walked into his back. “The world has changed a lot.”

I took his hand. “Not in this town it hasn’t.” I tried to reassure him. “We have a cinema complex and a bowling alley, but otherwise I don’t think there has been any progress here since they installed street lamps.”

He smiled at my lame attempt, and curled his fingers into mine.

My stomach flip-flopped a bit. I wondered if it was weird to feel that way? I suddenly didn’t want him to leave.

All romantic thoughts flew from my head as I stepped outside and the smell hit me.

It was full on revolting. I pulled my cloak round to cover my mouth.

“Hey zombies, please make your way to The Seven Sisters.” I shouted through the material. Then tugging on Peter’s hand, we all dashed for Iris’s car.

The dead smell was slightly sweetened by all the dried lavender, sage and rosemary she had in the car. She started the engine and drove quickly down the hill as the mass of zombies started to slowly follow.

It was just gone eight as we approached the clearing.

“Wait here,” Iris stopped Peter and I as we drew near, “I’ll have to explain things first.”

I nodded and slipped my hand back into Peters, where it had become comfortable being.

“Do you really want to go tonight if we can manage it?” I asked him.

He nodded sadly. “Yes, sorry, but apart from you I have nothing to stay for. You’ve got a life to live, I’ve got an afterlife.” His fingers stroked the back of my hand.

Bob dropped out of the sky and onto my shoulder. “They’re ready for you now Mistress.”

We went forward. The circle of women parted and greeted us. I counted nine women, all dressed in black cloaks not dissimilar to my own, underneath which they were wearing… nothing at all.

Their ages ranged from about twenty to about sixty. I really wished they would stop flashing the flesh. I was so not cool with it.

They had big welcoming smiles on their faces for me, but were looking at Peter with rather unfriendly eyes. We held hands a little tighter.

Iris came forward. “This is Emily, and this is her ghost.”

There was some muttering and then as if by silent agreement they all came and hugged us both. I tried not to shrink away from the wobbly bits coming too close.

The eldest woman took my hand where Peter had dropped it to avoid one of the more cuddly witches. “Emily, if everything Iris says is true then you are a Natural Witch! We would be very glad to have you join us.”

“Er, thanks.” I muttered.

“Come child, we will form a circle and draw down the moon.” The other witches returned to the circle shape within the ring of trees as she spoke.

“Draw down the moon?” I thought briefly of the movie where someone lassos the moon. “I don’t know how to do that.”

“You don’t need to do it, just stand in the centre with your ghost and we will do the rest. Just raise your arms up and try to feel her energy pouring down, around and into you.” She walked me to the centre of the circle, Peter followed.

“We’ll cast the circle and you will take the place of the priestess. Our power should generate in the circle and you will harness it.”

“I will?” I looked around feeling once again totally out of my depth. “Then what?”

“You’ll know dear,” she said smiling, “after all, you’re a Natural Witch. Now if you want to leave your clothes over there?” She pointed to a pile of clothes by a tree.

“Huh?” I stumbled backwards. “I’m not taking off my clothes!”

A small frown creased her forehead. “You need to feel the moonlight on your skin. It has to connect with your magic.”

At that moment a moaning became apparent. The zombies had arrived. The other witches began to back away looking fearful.

“Zombies stop!” I said, feeling super important and powerful. The zombies stopped and stood swaying and moaning.

“Please hurry dear,” the eldest witch shoed me over to the tree, “this is all most unsettling and rather smelly. We really must resolve it and quickly!”

At the tree I found Iris shedding her clothes. “Quickly Emily, get undressed, you can keep your cloak on for warmth.” She disappeared back into the throng.

I looked at Peter, he had never left my side and was now trying very hard not to laugh at the look on my face.

“Oh don’t be such a prude Emily, just get on with it. You have to do it or the zombies and I might be following you around for ever.”

I huffed a little but began to undress. I suppose I had nothing he probably hadn’t seen a million times before, but it was different now I knew him. I didn’t want to get naked in front of all those women, but then I suppose they were all naked too. And what about the zombies, they were all men! A disgusting thought followed that one, that most of the zombies probably didn’t have eyes anymore anyway.

“Turn your back at least!” I snapped. He gave into his laughter but turned around.

Once I was naked, I pulled my cloak tightly around myself. It was freezing.

Peter and I walked to the centre of the circle and the other witches began to chant. I didn’t really listen to the words. I felt the energy and power instantaneously. It was like it was bouncing around between the seven trees. The witches began to dance, I felt the chant like it was music and I too began to dance without conscious thought. The energy began swirling like a vortex with me in the eye of the storm. I threw my arms up to the full moon and let it wash over me.

I heard Bob’s voice somewhere above me. “Now, Mistress.”

“Undo, undo, undo.” I cried.

The moonlight shot into me and radiated back out of me. I was blinded by the glare and then it was dark again.

In the silence I dropped my arms. As my eyes readjusted to the darkness I could see the witches were all stood looking at me with awe. My gaze swivelled to the common around us. Not a zombie in sight. And there in front of me was Peter, once more all ghosty.

Ghosty and naked!

At his feet lay the onesie he had been wearing. It had dropped right off his ghost body. I remembered that his pyjamas were still at the house.

I tipped my head back and gave into a hysterical mix of crying and laughter.

When I had calmed down a little I wiped my eyes and focused on Peter. He was glaring at me with his hands over his manhood.

“You know what they say,” I giggled, “Revenge is a dish best served cold, and naked.”

“Emily!” His eyes darted to the other witches who were also starting to giggle.

I shrugged, “I don’t know what to do now.” I told him.

“I do.” A pretty girl in her mid twenties came forward.

“Are you Theresa?” I asked.

She nodded. “Here, take me hand and hold the other out to Peter. He’s bound to you right?”

“Yes.” Peter rested his hand over mine as we had tried once before. I felt the bond straight away, we were still connected.

“Good.” Theresa smiled with approval, “That’s the hardest bit. Now just imagine him surrounded by white light and repeat after me.

“Halloween moon, blessed night,

surround this man with cleansing light,

whatever keeps him, set it free,

release his bonds, so mote it be.”

I repeated her spell three times. Peter and I stared into each others eyes as I said the words, trying to convey everything we wanted to say, but really there wasn’t much, only that in the last few hours he had become special and I would miss him. As I said the verse a final time, he glowed and then was gone.

Just like that, I felt the bond fade, and suddenly I was freezing cold on a dark autumn night, feeling lonely and overwhelmed.

As if sensing my need, Bob flew down and landed on my shoulder. I stroked his little head. “Let’s get out of here.” He said quietly.

I quickly got dressed and then thanked the witches one by one. Iris came up to me last of all. “I suppose you’d like me to take you to your party now?” She said giving me a quick hug. I could see she was really proud of my performance.

“Yes please.” I had no idea how I was supposed to act in this situation, but I couldn’t wait to get back to my normal life, where I knew exactly what I wanted. “But would you mind if we went and picked up Duncan first? I wouldn’t want him to think I went to the party without him.”

She looked at me in surprise, but I didn’t explain. I was going to be much nicer to Duncan from now on.

Fifteen minutes later Iris dropped Duncan and I off at Tamsin’s house. I could hear the song “I put a spell on you” blaring out from inside, and there were cut out ghosts and witches in the windows.

Duncan made a decent vampire in his costume, I wondered about setting him up with Kate, she was such a Twilight fan.

As the door opened I thought I would feel sick with nerves wondering if Sean was going to be there and if he would talk to me, but after everything I had been through in the last day, I felt surprisingly confident.

I quickly found Bryony and Kate. Bryony was flirting with a boy I recognised as one of Sean’s friends. Kate was standing to one side looking a bit left out. I hugged them both.

“Where have you been all day?” Kate asked, “I’ve been ringing your phone but it was always switched off.”

“Sorry,” I apologised, “just some family stuff I had to sort out.”

“Is everything alright now?”

“Yes.” I smiled.

“Hey Kate, do you think you could chat to Duncan for a bit? I don’t see any of his friends here yet.”

“Sure,” she smiled coyly at Duncan. He looked delighted and a bit star struck at the sight of her in her ‘Buffy’ outfit. How had I never noticed before that they might like each other?

I soon spotted Sean chilling in the kitchen. He was dressed as a zombie. I laughed when I saw his costume. He looked absolutely nothing like the zombies I had accidentally raised. Much better looking for a start. I walked over.

He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. He smelled a million times better than my zombies as well.

“I was starting to worry you weren’t coming.” He said, flashing lovely white teeth at me.

“I wouldn’t have missed this party for anything.” I said, knowing full well now that it was the truth.

He tilted his head, eyeing me appraisingly. “You seem different somehow.”

I laughed again. “Do I?”

But he was right, I did feel different, I
was
different. For a start, the old me would never have approached him, I would have waited for him to come to me, and then I would have been really edgy and under confident. Not any more.

He offered me a glass of ‘eyeball’ fruit punch. I sipped it, smiling at him and listening to him talk. I didn’t add much, just watched the way he ran his fingers through his hair, the way he was focused only on me.

Then I watched him and his friends do the full dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and clapped appreciatively.

Eventually we moved out to a bench in the garden, only able to see each other by the light of the moon and the flickering of several candles that stood inside carved pumpkins.

It wasn’t the most romantic song in the world, but he leaned in to kiss me as the Ghost Busters theme tune started in the house, filtering out of the living room window.

It was funny how the lyrics made me feel powerful. I was a ghost buster, in a friendly nice way. I was a ‘righteous witch’ as Peter had said.

Instead of ducking my head, or turning away in fear at the last second, as I might have done before, I was ready for this moment.

Under a Halloween full moon, Sean Carrey kissed me, and I kissed him back.

I had earned this moment. Who knew what the future would hold, what other talking animals I would encounter, what ghosts I might have to help, what other spells I would cast that would cause complete mayhem, and whether my magic would be a major part of my life or just another element of who I was.

None of that mattered as I experienced my first real kiss.

This was one Halloween I would never forget.

The Flirting Games

More Flirting Games

Further Flirting Games

Halloween Magic and Mayhem

Something to Read on the Ride

Book One of
The Flirting Games
Series is available FREE on Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C14KSH8

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Something To Read On The Ride
is a Charity Anthology. 27 Stories all donated by different authors, including Stella Wilkinson, who has contributed two stories to the anthology. 100% of the proceeds of this book go to a children’s charity.