“What’ll it be?” a bald woman with white eyes dried a long-stem wine glass with a cloth at the bar. She slid it into the hanging rack above her and immediately picked up another to dry.
“Ouija, we need safe haven,” Leto went up to her. “Something is attacking us at the chalet.”
“You’ll find no safety here,” she hung up the last glass and leaned on the bar. “But I can get you a drink to go.” Ouija’s thin, white tank top showed off an intricate chest tattoo of an ancient alphabet spanning from shoulder to shoulder. The white tattoo glowed against her smooth, dark skin, glittering like diamonds.
“What?” Leto showed genuine emotion, his eyebrows bristling and jaw clenching. “But–what? Witches always have safe haven at Old Ouija’s.”
“Not this one,” she nodded to Bennet, whose mouth fell open.
“What’s wrong with me?” she snapped to Leto, her eyes wide in search of support.
“She reeks of death and magic: a geist is haunting her,” Ouija explained. “Its dangerous for her here as it is anywhere else, it only endangers me too. And I want to look out for me.” She pulled up a bottle of tequila from below the bar and lined up three shot glasses.
Leto rubbed his chin and hummed to himself. “All right…”
“What does she mean?” Bennet was confused. “I’m being ‘haunted’? Who’s haunting me? A ghost?”
“Geists,” Leto corrected. “Twisted spirits of dead witches. She’ll find you here; Ouija’s wards only protect against non-witches. Geists are technically witches: if it comes here it will get through the protective magics.”
“So where can we go it wont find me?” asked Bennet. Leto stayed silent. “Oh my god, I’m going to die. It’s my first day of magic school and I’m going to die.”
“Can you relax? You aren’t going to die. You kids go sit in the corner and be quiet while we figure out what to do,” Kozo pointed at some chairs by a window so heavily frosted all you could see outside was black. She turned back to Leto and Finn. “That girl is going to die,” Kozo whispered.
“Shut up Kozo,” Leto told her.
“Geists always find their mark,” she replied.
“Shut up Kozo,” he repeated. “Geists hunt the people who killed them and Bennet certainly hasn’t killed any witch, recently or otherwise; this is strange.”
“What should we do, Leto?” asked Finn.
“We need to contact the other professors,” Leto decided. “They may have encountered the geist by now at the chalet.”
“Provided they aren’t zombie food,” said Kozo.
“Remind me to never have you with me in a crisis,” Leto shot. “You’re drastically unhelpful.”
“Just keeping it light,” she threw her hands up defensively.
Bennet tried her best to listen to what the older witches were whispering about, stroking Grim with nervous intensity. “What is happening?” she asked to no one in particular.
“It’s okay,” Kitty assured her. “I’m sure the professors are used to dealing with all of this.”
“What is ‘all of this’? I literally have no idea what is happening. I was just trying to eat a salad and things suddenly got very real. Like, now I’m being haunted and I’m not allowed in secret witch bars?” she gave Kitty a guffawed glare. “I–I literally can not.”
“Fuck: me either,” Lucy grumbled, sitting all the way on the other side of the room from Bennet. “Remind me to stay away from you forever.”
“Why are you all the way over there? She isn’t contagious. You aren’t going to catch her haunting,” Kitty rolled her eyes.
“Haven’t I already, though?” Lucy snapped, pulling out her cellphone from somewhere on her person.
“And now you’re going on your phone. Is it really time to check Instagram?” Kitty stated the obvious.
“Why? Is the ghost tracking us through my phone? Is it in the NSA now?”
Kitty rolled her eyes, giving Bennet an attempt at a smile. “Let’s talk it out, Bennet. I find when people get all pouty and not-talking they make bad decisions brought on through their own unchecked thoughts. So let’s talk?”
The blonde nodded, a pout glued to her mouth. “…What is this thing?”
“Geists are vengeful spirits of dead witches, they hunt down whatever killed them.”
“What if what killed them wasn’t a person? Like they fell off a building?” Bennet asked.
“Haunted building,” Kitty replied.
“What about if they die in a car accident?”
“What if they choke on a chicken wing at a restaurant?”
“But the chicken wing killed them, not the building!”
“Doesn’t matter,” Kitty shrugged.
“That’s fucked up…” Bennet hated ghost logic.
“So… have you killed any witches recently?”
“No!” Bennet exclaimed. “How could–where would I–I just finished high school!”
“Okay, so this is weird…” Kitty rubbed her chin.
“It’s not as strange as you guys are making it,” Ouija took one of the shots of tequila, breaking up the whisper-fest.
“Care to elaborate?” asked Kozo.
“Her cat,” Ouija smirked, “that thing is one powerful catalyst. Hypothetically, the geist could come back to life through that girl and her pet. That is why it’s after her. I’ve seen it before. Did she draw it for the first time only recently? The geist must have felt it.” She took the second shot of tequila, self-satisfaction emanating from her.
Bennet rubbed Grim between his eyes; suddenly more worried for him than herself.
“What did you do last time?” Leto leaned on the bar.
“I didn’t do anything, I stayed the fuck here. But they burned its bones.” Ouija went for the final shot but Leto snatched it before she could reach it, downing it quickly.
His throat warmed to the alcohol as he placed the miniature glass back on the bar. “Can you help us find this one’s bones?”
Ouija quietly assessed the shot glass before deciding to pour herself another, staring into the amber liquid. “…I guess I could help… Come here,” she waved Bennet over with a deep sigh. Bennet cautiously went and stood in front of Ouija. The woman pet Grim, who had begun purring insanely. “I love cats,” she said, before taking her last shot of tequila. “All righty, lets do this.”
Ducking quickly below her bar, Ouija pulled out a silver tin. She slid the lid off, revealing several vials of purple powder; emptying one onto the wooden bar and lining it up with the triangular shard of a mirror also in the tin. Ouija leaned over, held a single nostril closed, and snorted up the powder in one deep inhale.
When she stood back up, her eyes glimmered black and starry like space. She held Bennet’s cheek, her hand was unnaturally hot but not enough to be painful. Ouija sniffed harshly three times before exhaling in quick bursts.
“Goddamn,” she muttered. “Goddamn. Goddamn: did not plan on getting this high today…” Ouija sniffed Bennet’s face some more, the whole time Grim purred in her arms. “I see the witch’s death… no... The geist... she's seeing other witches die. Lots of them–she’s… these are definitely deaths of the trials… But she survived and… moved with other witches. …There’s freezing water now and… crows… or… and trees and... a clearing…”
Ouija backed away from Bennet, walking slowly to a silver fridge which dripped frozen water vapor as she opened it. She retrieved a single ice cube and munched on it with her back left molars. “The witch’s bones are in New Salem in a clearing. There’s cold water and mud… and birds.”
“That’s hardly specific,” Kozo sighed.
“Excuse the fuck out of me: I didn’t need to get stoned off esper dust to have some ungrateful witch be ungrateful,” Ouija chomped her ice forcefully.
Leto glared at Kozo. “Sorry,” Kozo bowed her head, apologizing to both of them. “Thank you for helping us find clues.”
“Yeah, yeah, now please leave, I’m about to get spacey and hungry. So unless you’re gonna help me cook some grilled cheese and fried chicken: bye.” Ouija ducked away behind some black wood saloon doors where clangs of pots and pans rang out.
“What do we do, dude?” asked Finn.
“We return to the school. The other professors will meet us back there,” Leto replied. “Witches! Gather!”
Excerpt from The Magical Girls and the Witch’s Bones. Coming soon to Amazon Kindle.
