Chapter Text
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ 𝙼𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚜, 𝟷𝟿𝟿𝟾 ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
It was a warm night in August, much like that fateful one sixteen years ago when three love spells were cast. But it was far from a quiet one. In the back yard of that big white house on a large plot of land at the very end of Magnolia Street, a party was raging. Or more accurately, a wedding reception for the union of Sally Owens and Gary Hallet.
Everyone in town seemed to be in attendance, an occurrence that just a few months previous would have been unthinkable, but now it was something no one batted an eye at. People were dancing and eating delectable dishes made by the Aunts, and washing it all down with special homemade Owens cider and wine. Families sat under a large white canopy set up for the occasion, chatting under the warm glow of the yellow fairy lights hanging overhead. The cats that roamed the property freely chased after children as they played in the garden, getting their fine shirts and dresses dirty. The whole thing was a wild, warm affair that had even the most unenthused people smiling from ear to ear.
And at the center of it all was the bride, her groom, and her two daughters, all of them dressed in white and practically glowing with happiness as they mingled with the guests. Sally was the star of the show in her beautiful wedding gown, courtesy of the Aunts’ talented hands, with her new husband standing proudly at her side, happy to let his amazing wife have the spotlight. Kylie and Antonia stuck close to their mother and new step-father, dimpled smiles on their faces that had everyone that saw them cooing over how adorable they were. Especially Gary’s extended family, who had flown out from Arizona for the occasion, and were very happy for him and his beautiful new wife. Yes, the new Owens-Hallet family was quite a sight to behold.
Erica smiled softly as she watched the happenings from the balcony of her attic bedroom, still in her floor-length blue bridesmaid’s dress and heels. She was happy to remain a quiet spectator for the moment. She was having a lovely time enjoying her sister’s big day, but the party had been going on for hours, not including the wedding ceremony itself. She needed a moment to recharge her batteries, and as Erica did so, she took a moment to reflect on how they had gotten to this point.
Everyone in town had come out to celebrate Sally’s second wedding to Gary Hallet, former Arizona State Investigator and current Police Chief of Maria’s Island. Sally’s first wedding ceremony had been done at city hall with just a handful of people, but for this one she had pulled out all the stops. A big white ceremony at the town church, bridesmaids and groomsmen, and of course, a huge reception at their family home.
Erica had never dreamed that her family would be able to host something like this, but they had. It was almost surreal.
‘Things have changed so much these last few months.’, Erica thought to herself, her eyes subconsciously drifting over to the plot of land where a rose bush used to grow. And where the body was still buried.
It had all happened so fast. A few days after Gilly had returned to Tucson after her visit, she called the house terrified out of her wits and begged Sally to come get her. Erica tagged along, because she wasn’t about to stay home lounging about when her sister was in danger.
She and Sally arrived at some sleazy motel in Arizona where Gilly was holed up, and found her shivering on the floor with smudged makeup and a black eye. It was clear who was responsible for it all.
When she saw the awful state her sister was in, Erica wanted to kill Jimmy Angelov for what he had done to her. And in the most twisted and traumatizing way possible, she ended up getting her wish.
The bastard ambushed them in the car when they were getting ready to take Gilly home. She had gone back to his car for her damn tiger’s eye pendant off the rearview mirror and he managed to grab her by the hair. After that, he effectively held her hostage and forced Sally and Erica to get in the car with him.
He had Sally drive them to the middle of nowhere while he rambled about Louis L’Amour and cowboys or whatever, but while they were driving, Erica managed to pour a whole vial of Gilly’s belladonna into his tequila. Enough to kill him. Erica knew she could just put in enough to sedate him and leave it at that. She had a steady enough hand for it. But if she let him live, what was to stop him from coming after Gilly again? He had already gone this far to hurt her, holding her hostage and trying to brand her with his ugly ring on the road. What if next time they couldn’t save her?
Knowing all this, Erica decided then and there that there wasn’t going to be a next time. For Gilly to be safe, the scum needed to die. So Erica made sure to put more than enough belladonna in his drink to send him to the grim reaper.
Unfortunately for Erica, Mr. Jesse James Dracula was a very large man, and with men his size poison could take a while to take effect. Time they didn’t have.
After an hour of driving to God-knows-where, Angelov made them pull over at some power plant so he could relieve himself. Then he came back to the car and Gilly tried to calm him down. He reacted by grabbing her neck and trying to strangle her in the backseat.
Erica was on him in the blink of an eye, and unlike Gilly, he wasn’t able to use his strength to push her around. Because Erica was a black belt in Karate, and while they couldn’t have a proper fight in such close quarters, that didn’t change the fact that Erica still had very strong muscles developed from years of martial arts training. Not to mention, Angelov was very disoriented, drunk, and had copious amounts of poison in his bloodstream. The fight was over before it even began.
Erica immediately went for his neck, and using his shoulders as leverage, she snapped his vertebrae in two with a sickening ‘crack’. Angelov went limp on top of Gilly. He died instantly. It was a far quicker death than the man deserved, and it wasn’t through the original method she had intended, but Erica had gotten the job done. Angelov was dead, and now they had to deal with the consequences.
After killing a man with her bare hands, Erica barely had time to reflect on the morality of her actions before Sally and Gilly were scrambling to fix what they had done. If she had been in a better state of mind, Erica would have suggested they chop the bastard up and feed him to some pigs so that he would never be found. But Erica had been in shock after everything that had happened, so she just let herself be dragged along through Gilly and Sally’s terrible, poorly thought out plan as they took the lead. Which predictably, went horribly wrong.
After dabbling in necromancy out of necessity with her sisters (hopefully for the only time in her life) with the logic in mind that they couldn’t be charged with murder if their victim was alive, Angelov was brought back… and then proceeded to try and kill Gilly again. Erica, still on auto-pilot after experiencing her first murder, killed the undead fucker again, this time by striking him upside the head with a frying pan. After that, Sally and Gilly buried him in the yard, and Erica went to drink a whole bottle of vodka and cuddle her cat. She ended up staying in her room and not doing anything but staring at the ceiling for three days.
That should have been the end of it, but they were Owens women. Nothing ever went as planned for them, even murder. Naturally, Angelov soon rose from the grave and started haunting them like a demented ghost from the Conjuring. Well, Erica meant ‘them’ as in Sally and Gilly. The Aunts had taken one look at their youngest niece’s catatonic state and decided they needed to take her with them when they left their other nieces to clean up their mess, figuring that whatever she had gone through had been punishment enough for anything she could have done.
They bundled Erica up and took her down to a quiet bed and breakfast in New Orleans for a few days while Sally and Gilly were left to ‘clean up their own mess’ as they put it. It was an outing Erica desperately needed. The change of scenery really helped her come to terms with what had happened, and she even learned some neat things about voodoo magic from the handful of local witches in the area. Erica came back home content with herself and resolute that she had made the right choice when she killed Angelov… and was promptly greeted with a possessed Gilly and a deeply conflicted Sally, who had apparently found her true love… in the form of the detective who was investigating the death of the guy she had murdered. Fantastic.
But against everything, it all turned out for the best in the end. They formed a coven with a handful of local women and exorcized the fucker’s spirit. Angelov got sent back to hell where he belonged, Gary Hallet told his supervisors in Arizona that whatever had happened to the bastard was ‘accidental’, the townspeople finally accepted them, Sally got the man of her dreams and learned to stop being so scared of love and magic, and Gilly learned that she doesn’t need a man to be happy. But best of all, after two hundred years of causing every woman that bore the Owens name to suffer, Maria’s curse was finally broken.
When Erica realized that powerful fact shortly after Angelov had been banished, it felt like a weight she hadn’t known was there had been lifted from her shoulders. She felt freer than she ever had been. Like she could finally live her life without regret. Erica hadn’t noticed she had been subconsciously letting the curse control her (nonexistent) love life until it was gone, but now that it was, she finally felt ready to take a chance on love when it presented itself.
But that didn’t seem likely to ever happen, given that none of the men or women she had met in her nineteen years of life had ever come close to meeting her high standards. Erica always found something off about them and would subconsciously write them off within minutes of meeting them, even if they were genuinely nice people who had qualities she admired. She couldn’t for the life of her figure out why that was, though.
But that minor problem aside, everything was how she had always hoped it would be. Sally was happy, Gilly had moved back home, and they had all been accepted for who they were by the general populus. Everything was great… So why did she still feel like something was missing?
Erica’s train of thought was interrupted when she heard someone coming up the stairs. Looking behind her, she saw Gilly standing in the entryway, wearing a bridesmaid dress that matched her own, with a nostalgic smile on her face.
“I knew I’d find you here. You always came up to the attic when you didn’t want to deal with people.”, her sister said as she tucked a loose piece of red hair behind her ear. Erica smiled back at her.
“No, I come up here when I need to think. Getting to be alone is just a perk.”, she corrected jokingly, her eyes sparkling with mirth. Gilly shook her head and chuckled as she sauntered up to stand beside her.
“You are something else, you know that? Our sister is downstairs celebrating getting married to Mr. Ranger Rooter down there, and here you are ‘thinking’. Believe it or not Erica, you have the rest of your life to think about things and brood on the balcony. Why don’t you go back to the party? Have a drink, dance with a guy. I know for a fact that Mr. Maren’s son has been making goo-goo eyes at you all night~!”, Gilly teased. Erica made a face at the suggestion, like she had eaten something particularly sour.
“Jason Maren? Please, that guy dresses like his mom picks out his clothes and thinks that plane exhaust fumes are chem trails. I’d rather go out with Brad from the economics department back at Harvard.”, Erica immediately and firmly refused. Gilly laughed at her bluntness.
“Yeah, fair enough. I should’ve known you’d say that. No man is good enough for her royal highness.”, Gilly said in a fake imperious voice with a joking bow to get a laugh out of her sister. But Erica, once again lost in thought, didn’t so much as look at her. It made her worry she had said something insensitive.
“Unless of course, you prefer the ladies… ?”, Gilly asked carefully after a moment.
It wouldn’t be completely out of the realm of possibility. Gilly had been out of her sister’s life for nearly ten years, most of which were the ones where kids usually figure out their sexuality and gender identity. It made sense that Erica could have figured out she wasn’t straight and just decided not to tell her in their letters, because Erica wasn’t the type to tell people personal stuff like that.
Back in the land of the living, Erica heard her sister’s question and answered it without thinking.
“I like anyone that’s pretty. I don’t really care what their gender is, but I usually go for guys.”, Erica admitted truthfully, telling her sister the same thing she had told the Aunts after they had taken her to see Heathers at a drive-in theater in New Bedford when she was fifteen, and realized that she had a thing for pretty people in primary colors. Gilly blinked at her slowly.
“That’s… huh.”, was all she said, not exactly shocked by the information, but not having expected it either. Her sister wasn’t one of those people that broadcasted things about themselves through behavior or word. She just kind of… existed in whatever way she saw fit. Erica shrugged.
“It’s the truth.”, she said. There was a tense moment of silence.
“Do you… do you have a problem with it?”, Erica asked hesitantly, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
Erica knew her sister well, their ten years of estrangement aside, but they had never really talked about things like different sexualities and if she was okay with them. So it was possible that Gilly secretly didn’t… approve of things like that. And if she didn’t, she honestly didn’t know what she would do. Thankfully, her anxieties were put to rest when Gilly started fervently denying her words within a second of her finishing her sentence
“What?! No, no! God, no! Whatever you like is fine with me! Boys, girls, chickens, whatever makes you happy! You know, I once dated a guy for a month when I was in New Mexico, and then I found out he was gay, and then we– ”, Gilly was quick to assure her, and Erica’s budding worry over her sister’s response quickly died out. She was soon left laughing loudly in both relief and amusement as Gilly floundered to prove she wasn’t homophobic. Gilly noticed this and scowled, her panic vanishing the instant she realized Erica wasn’t upset.
“Oh hardy har har. Yeah, laugh at your sister’s suffering, why don’t you?”, Gilly said with a roll of her eyes, not sounding serious in the slightest. Erica couldn’t help but grin and nudge her with her elbow.
“Aw come on, you gotta admit the way you freaked out was pretty funny. I didn’t get reactions like that out of Sally or the Aunts when I told them. They all just kind of said ‘oh, that’s nice dear’ and moved on.”, Erica said, and that earned her a raised eyebrow.
“Really? That’s it?”, Gilly asked disbelievingly. She could see Sally reacting like that, but she’d always felt like Aunts would be more dramatic about the whole thing. Erica shrugged.
“Well, I didn’t make a big deal out of telling them, so I think they decided they shouldn’t make a big deal out of knowing. The only time they’ve ever brought it up is when my love life comes up in conversation. ‘You’re hopeless, Eri-darling! Half of the people you’re attracted to aren’t even affected by the curse, and somehow you still can’t get a date’!”, Erica said, doing her best impression of her Aunt Frances. Gilly was left howling with laughter.
“Oh my god, the Aunts would say that!”, Gilly screeched as she pounded the balcony railing with her fist. Erica laughed as well.
“Right? And I mean, they’re not wrong. I am kind of hopeless when it comes to love. Seriously, here I am, an adult in college, and I still haven’t even had my first kiss. I’m practically a disgrace to the bloodline.”, Erica joked. Gilly shook her head as she tried to stifle her laughter.
“No, you’ve just got higher standards than the rest of us. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I’d rather you wait for Mr. or Mrs. Right then settle for the first guy who asks you out.”, Gilly told her. Erica nodded at her wise words.
“Yeah, you’ve got a point. In the meantime I guess I’ll just stay up here with my books and my cat. Alone. With no one to bother me. Oh, woe is me.”, Erica said sarcastically as she described what was essentially an introvert’s paradise. Gilly laughed again.
“God, you never change, do you? But that’s the thing I’ve always loved about you, Eri. Whenever everything was going to hell in a handbasket, you were always the one thing that stayed the same. I could always count on finding you up here with Caliban and a book, trying to tune out the world. It’s comforting.”, Gilly admitted as she leaned over the railing, admiring the view with a content expression. Erica’s smile fell as she talked.
“Yeah, you know me. I never change.”, Erica agreed unenthusiastically. Gilly noticed her reaction and frowned.
“What’s wrong?”, she said. There was silence for a moment. Then Erica sighed heavily and crossed her arms.
“I don’t know, I just… When you left home, did you do it because you felt like something was missing from your life?”, Erica asked, trying to articulate the feeling of discontent that had been tormenting her recently. Gilly looked confused and more than a bit concerned.
“Erica, what are you talking about Seriously, is something wrong? You’re acting a little weird.”, she asked her younger sister. Erica bit her lip and walked back into her room.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. I’ve just been feeling kind of off lately. Maybe it’s because Sally’s getting married again, I don’t know. I’m just antsy, is all. I’ll- probably feel better after I go back to school.”, Erica tried to assure her sister, but Gilly was not about to let it go that easily. She walked over to her sister and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“Eri, if something’s wrong, you can tell me. You helped me get rid of Jimmy, even after I was gone all those years. The least I can do is help you get rid of your problems.”, Gilly responded kindly, a soft smile on her red lips. That was all it took for Erica to give in. She sighed and plopped down on her bed.
“Okay, but… promise you won’t think I’m crazy?”, Erica said nervously. Even at nineteen years old, she still got nervous over heart-to-hearts with her sister. Gilly sat down beside her.
“A few months ago I was possessed by my evil ex after being tormented by his lingering spirit. Trust me, the last person that’s gonna call you crazy is me.”, Gilly promised her, wrapping an arm around her for comfort. Erica leaned into her side and rested her head on her shoulder, before letting out a loud exhale and trying to put together the words to explain how she felt.
‘Okay, here goes nothing.’, she thought.
“The truth is I’ve been feeling off lately. Ever since the curse broke, I’ve felt so free, but I’ve felt so… alone? I don’t know if that’s the right word for it. I just feel like something’s missing from my life, and until I find what that thing is, I won’t be whole. It’s making me restless, and I don’t know what it means or what I’m supposed to do. Is it a sign I need to make a change in my life, or am I just making a big deal out of nothing? It’s all so complicated, Gilly. I’ve never felt like this before.”, Erica admitted in one breath, feeling like a weight had been taken off her chest as soon as she spoke. Gilly stayed silent for a moment, then hummed in thought.
“Hm, you’re right, that is complicated. But don’t worry, I think I know how to fix your problem. My solution is, and stay with me on this one; I think you should finally get laid.”, Gilly said with the utmost seriousness. Erica lifted her head from her shoulder and gave her a deadpanned look
“ …I’m going to smack you.”, she said with absolute seriousness, and that got her an indignant squawk from Gilly.
“I’m being serious! Feelings of loneliness, restlessness and unfulfillment are all textbook symptoms of a dry spell!”, she protested, actually making a reasonable argument. Except for one key detail.
“I’ve never had sex! How could I have a dry spell for something I’ve never had?!”, Erica reminded her. Gilly wouldn’t let up.
“Which means you've spent your life living in the freaking Sahara!”, Gilly insisted. Erica shook her head in exasperation and got up off the bed to pace around the attic.
“Gilly, I am NOT sexually frustrated!”, Erica insisted, but Gilly could tell she was on the right track with the ‘frustration’ narrative.
“Well then maybe you’re romantically frustrated. You just said that this all started when the curse broke. Maybe before that happened, you had been subconsciously holding yourself back from love because you felt like it was too risky. Now that there’s no curse, you’re allowing yourself to feel lonely because now you feel like you can love, but you don’t have anyone to love, so now you’re hyper-aware of everything you’re missing out on.”, Gilly said perceptively. Erica froze and opened her mouth to refute her, but went rigid when she realized her sister may be right.
“You… might actually have a point there. When the hell did you get this emotionally intelligent, Gil?”, Erica asked. Gilly smirked in a self-satisfied sort of way and shrugged.
“Come on, you know me. I’ve always been good at reading people. That, and I took a community college class on women’s psychology a few years ago in Utah.”, Gilly bubbled. Erica snorted and crossed her arms.
“Right. Of course. So what you’re saying here is, I need to start dating?”, she asked. Gilly gave her a thoughtful look.
“Well, don’t just date anyone that comes along just because you want to fall in love. That was my big mistake. Just… wait a little while. The right person will show up eventually, I’m sure of it. And hey, if they don’t, you could always try a love spell.”, Gilly proposed. That had Erica scowling very quickly.
“You know I don’t like those, Gilly.”, Erica reminded her stiffly. That was another thing about her that would never change. Just the idea of using magic to tamper with someone’s emotions made her feel all icky inside. Gilly held up her hands in surrender.
“I know, I know. It was just a suggestion. So, now do you think you’re ready to go back to the party? I hear the Aunts are planning to make some Midnight Margaritas for the guests~!”, Gilly asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. Erica snickered at her expression and smiled apologetically.
“Sorry, not yet. I need time to think about what you said. I’ll go on a quick walk to clear my head and meet back up with you in an hour, okay?”, Erica proposed, knowing the reception would still be very much alive by then. The Aunts had declared at the start of it that they intended to keep everyone there until dawn. Gilly huffed in playful annoyance and stood up.
“You and your damn thinking! Ugh, fine, take your walk. I’ll tell Sally where you are so she doesn’t freak out.”, Gilly said with an exasperated shake of her head., before walking over and hugging her sister tightly. Erica hugged her back.
“Love you, sis. Think about what I said.”, Gilly whispered in her ear, and with that, she went back down the stairs to rejoin the festivities below. Erica watched her go with a content look on her face, and waited until she couldn’t hear footsteps anymore before letting out a loud exhale of breath.
“The right person will show up eventually, huh? It’s good advice, but I don’t feel like I can be that patient. Come on Caliban, we’re going on a trip!”, Erica called out to her cat as she grabbed her purple and orange patchwork bag from her bedside table. Caliban, who had been napping up in the attic rafters, jumped down from his perch and followed after her with trained compliancy.
Erica quietly snuck out of the house and stomped through an unoccupied patch of the garden. She walked past the overgrown stone and wood cottage that had once been her ancestor Maria’s home, down Magnolia Street, and through a small wooded area until she reached Endicott Street. Downtown was completely deserted, and while most would have found it eerie, Erica found it calming. She and Caliban walked under the glow of the yellow street lights until they reached the end of the asphalt, where a dirt road lay. Erica walked down it, dodging uneven ground and potholes with familiar ease, until she reached what laid at the end of the road.
An old, dark cemetery was the sight that greeted her. It had been the town’s primary burial ground since its founding. Every resident of Maria Island was buried there when they died, including the Owens family. As well as the people Erica had come searching for.
She walked through the old stone gate and down the rows of headstones, until she came upon a distinctive grey one in the shape of a heart. It was too dark to see what was written on it without a flashlight, but Erica didn’t need one. She had come to visit it so many times, she already knew the words engraved on it by heart.
Here Lies Jack & Regina Owens, Beloved Parents
Together in Death as they were in Life.
“Hi Mom, hi Dad. Long time no see.”, Erica said casually as she sat down and took a seat in front of her parents’ grave, not caring if she got her dress dirty. Caliban climbed onto her and curled up in her lap.
This wasn’t the first time Erica had visited her parents’ grave. She started visiting the graveyard in secret on a regular basis around the time she turned seven. At first it was because it was quiet and no one ever went there (especially the local kids, who thought it was haunted), so it meant she could read or do other things in peace.
But then Erica noticed it was the place where her parents had been buried, and so she started going there not just for the quiet, but to visit them and tell them about her life. It was the only way she would ever be able to do it, after all.
It became something of a habit for her. She would sit by their tombstone while she did this and that, holding one-sided conversations with people she couldn’t remember. Sometimes she would leave her parents flowers or trinkets, and other times she would just lay down on top of them and nap under the sun. Once Erica had brought her nieces to see the grave, and she had brought Micheal and Gary a bit before they proposed to Sally to ‘get their parents’ blessing’, but she never brought her sisters to visit with her. They had gotten the chance to know their parents when they were still alive. They had memories of them. It felt too sacred for Erica to invite them along when they had those times to look back on, while she had none.
With that sad fact in mind, Erica pulled a bottle of Jack out of her bag, as well as two glasses. She put one glass in front of the grave, and one glass in front of her. She twisted the cap off the whiskey as she began to talk to her parents.
“Sally got married again today. You should’ve seen her, all dolled up in her dress. You’d be so proud of her. She’s really found her happiness again. The guy she married this time is from Arizona. You remember him, right? He’s the one I brought over last year. He used to be a detective, but he retired to marry Sally. He’s sweet, you’d like him. He helped us cover up a murder.”, Erica started as she poured herself a glass. Then she poured her parents one. She watched the amber liquid fill up the fine crystal cup.
“Sorry ahead of time if the booze is bad. I don’t know if you two like Tennessee whiskey, but it’s what ABC had so it’s what we’re having. But from what the Aunts have told me, you’d drink anything with ethanol in it, huh Mom?”, Erica joked weakly. Predictably, no one was laughing. She sat in depressing silence for a bit before she thought of something else to say, her face lighting up as she recalled the past events.
“Oh, Gilly moved back home. Yeah, she’s settling in really well too. She works at Sally’s herbal stuff shop. You know, Verbena. She sells more stuff than any of the other employees. Mostly because she wears those low-cut tank tops.”, Erica joked with a snort. This time, she didn’t wait for laughter that would never come. She picked up her glass and swirled the amber liquid inside around contemplatively.
“Uh what else has happened since I last talked to you… ? I already told you guys about Harvard and that Angelov fucker, may he rest in pieces. Um, let's see… I finished learning Irish Gaelic. It only took me a year and a half to figure out. I’ve started learning Urdu to complete the Bangla-Hindi-Urdu-Persian-Arabic Quintfecta. I know I don’t have to if I want to read Hindu and Muslim classics, but I’d feel like a fraud studying them without reading them in their original form, you know? I’m getting another degree in my black belt soon, too. Oh, and I’ve started learning the violin, or I guess it’s the fiddle since the music I’m learning is more folksy than anything. I know it’s a bit much since I already know the guitar, but I had the extra time so I figured what the hell. It was either pick up another instrument or learn how to knit, and I’m not that desperate.”, Erica joked with a soft smile, counting off all the events in her life on her fingers before downing half her whiskey with a grimace. She felt the liquid fire begin to pleasantly warm her belly.
“My friends from college keep telling me that if I get any more hobbies, I’ll explode from stress. They might be right. But what else am I supposed to do?I can’t just sit around doing nothing my whole life or I’ll go insane. Or worse, I’ll start using magic to meddle in people’s love lives like the Aunts, and I’d rather not do that.”, Erica continued, taking another sip of her whiskey. Then, she picked up the glass she had poured for her parents. She let out a long, lingering sigh.
“Honestly, after I get my degree, I have no idea what I wanna do with my life. College is great, but it’s just a temporary distraction. In four years it’ll be over, and then what? I’ll come back here and spend the rest of my life hanging around Sally’s store? Hell no. But my major is in Occult Studies, and I love learning about it, but I can’t even name one job that would hire someone with that kind of degree. Not that I need to work, but I’d rather not spend my life doing nothing.”, Erica vented, sighing again and burying her face in her free hand.
“Sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing with my life. Here I am, a genius witch with the most powerful magic our family has seen in generations, and I haven’t done anything important with those qualities. I just drift through life, feeling lonely and unfulfilled. I keep my head down and keep my nose in a book. And I love reading and my hobbies, but I don’t wanna spend the rest of my life doing busy work because I’m… what? Too scared to change? Too scared to actually live my life? Too afraid to find what’s missing, even if it’s what I want?”, Erica mused aloud, a bitter smile teasing at her lips as she idly petted her cat, who was sleeping soundly, none the wiser to her plight.
“God, I really am a hypocrite. My whole life I’ve rolled my eyes at Sally for letting her fears hold her back, but the truth is I’m not any better. Is this how I’m going to spend my life? Waiting in the wings with so much potential, but no way to use it? Collecting dust like an old book? If so, I’ve got to be the most pathetic Owens to ever live.”, Erica lamented with a dry snort, before looking up at the full moon hanging mockingly in the sky. She was really starting to feel the whiskey’s effect now.
“It’s like Sally said in that letter from a year ago. There’s a hole inside me, a great burning emptiness like a pit of fire, and there’s no one to fill it. And there never will be. It’s just me and the damn moon.”, Erica said spitefully with glare towards the offending celestial body. She took another sip of whiskey. Then, she stared at the stone in front of her longingly.
“I wonder, if you were here, what would you say? Would you be disappointed in me? Would you encourage me? Or would you tell me to stop throwing myself a pity party and fix my problems myself? But I’ll never know, will I? Because you’re not here. You’ve never been. I’m just a crazy kid, sitting here alone, talking to a rock because of her own unresolved issues. But I can pretend you’re here. Really, that all I can do.”, Erica mused, before snapping herself out of her reverie and raising the glass in her hand towards the sky.
“So, here’s to you, Mom and Dad. I hope you’re both happy, wherever you are. And if you can see me… please know I’m doing my best.”, Erica toasted. Then, she turned over her parents’ glass and poured the whiskey over their grave.
For a while, Erica just stared at the place where the alcohol soaked the ground, thinking about her life and what had led her to this point. Then she downed the rest of her drink and put the half empty bottle of Jack to the side. As she did so, she realized she was starting to feel a little lethargic, as she often did when she drank. Without really thinking, she laid down on top of her parents’ final resting place and caressed the dirt.
‘All this depressing talk is making me tired. Maybe I should take a nap before heading home… ‘, Erica thought as she felt her heavy eyelids flutter closed. The last thing she saw before drifting off was the moonlight reflecting off her parents’ grave stone, making it appear silvery and ethereal.
─── ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽.* ｡ﾟ☆ﾟ. ───
The first thing Erica saw was white. A whole lot of white. It was like she was walking through a never-ending cloud of fog. She had no idea how she had gotten in the white, or why she was there at all. All she knew was that there was an impenetrable haze surrounding both her body and her mind, and no matter how far she walked or how much she thought about what had gotten her here, she couldn’t seem to escape it or come up with an answer. Starting to feel hopeless and lost, she called out for help.
“Hello?! Is anyone there?!”, Erica yelled out. Her voice echoed unnaturally throughout the area. That was her second hint that something was seriously off. Her third hint came moments later, when a beautiful and strangely familiar woman in a white gown slowly emerged from the fog. Erica sized her up apprehensively. People mysteriously emerging from fog was never a good thing, but the woman noticed her tense behavior and was quick to make assurances.
“Do not fret, child. I mean you no harm.”, the woman said. Her voice was soft with a timeless quality to it. Erica found it soothing to her ears, but she didn’t let her guard down.
“Who are you and where am I?”, she asked with a hard frown, getting straight to the point. The woman smiled serenely at her.
“You are in the inbetween, where the mind meets the heart and the soul. It is a place where the past, present and future can intersect in ways they are unable to in the waking world. You may know it better as limbo.”, the woman explained. Erica blinked at the unhelpful flowery explanation.
“Limbo? But why would I be in a place like that?”, she asked, trying to get actual answers. The woman kept smiling at her.
“Because you are a witch, and we beings of the supernatural nature have a special connection to the inbetween. We often find ourselves coming here subconsciously, particularly magic practitioners or the deceased. It is the one place where the living can speak to the dead.”, the woman continued, before gaining a cheeky glint in her eerily familiar grey eyes.
“And as for who I am… Well, I should like to hope my own kin would recognize her dearly departed ancestor.”, the woman said lightheartedly. Erica was confused for a moment. Then, she remembered why she thought the woman was familiar; she had seen her on a portrait hanging in the Aunts’ living room above the fireplace nearly every day of her life. It was their prized oil painting of their most famous ancestor, Maria.
“You’re Maria.”, Erica breathed in astonishment, her own grey eyes going wide. Maria smiled warmly at her.
“Yes, child. I am. But I am afraid this is not a casual visit. I have brought you here to warn you of what is to come.”, Maria said seriously. Erica was taken aback.
“What’s to come? You mean the future? What could be so bad about the future that you’ve come to warn me about it from beyond the grave? We broke your curse. Wasn’t that the worst thing I was going to face in my life?”, Erica asked, already starting to feel anxious. Jimmy Angelov had been hell to deal with. If some other threat was coming and it was even worse than him… Erica didn’t even want to think about it. To her confusion, Maria laughed at her serious reaction, her black ringlets bouncing as she threw her head back.
“What is to come is not bad, I can assure you. On the contrary, a wonderful change in your life begins today. There will be some danger and some strife, but the love you will find throughout it will make it all worth it in the end. It is, after all, the love you sent for.”, Maria promised, but her cryptic words just sent Erica into a panic.
“The love I sent for? What are you talking about? I didn’t send for anything, I don’t do love spells!”, Erica protested vehemently, her eyes blazing intensely. Maria frowned thoughtfully.
“That is right, you have forgotten. But given time, you will remember. And with or without your memories, you will find all of them. Or perhaps they will find you. The pieces of your heart lay scattered child, but they will find their way to you like a moth to a flame. They cannot stay away, and neither can you.”, Maria continued. Erica shook her head fervently.
“Okay, you’re not making any sense.”, she told her ancestor, but Maria didn’t seem to be listening. She continued with her uninformative ramblings in spite of Erica’s discomfort.
“The spell you cast may have linked your hearts through time, but it could not bring you to them. For your sake and as penance for the suffering my foolishness caused, I will be taking that burden upon myself. I lament that to give you your happiness, I have to send you away to the one place your sisters cannot follow, but it will all turn out for the best in the end. Do not be afraid. Rejoice that you will never again feel such burning emptiness in your heart as you do now. You have had your time with your family, and now you will have your time with those that will cherish you always. The hands of time will keep you separated no longer, that I promise you.”, Maria went on with distant eyes, nodding to herself all the while. It was like she was looking at something no one else could see. Legendary ancestor or not, Erica had just about had it with the woman.
“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!”, she screamed as loudly as she could. She had finally reached the end of her rope. Maria snapped out of her trance and looked at her apologetically.
“I apologize for being so vague, but there are some things we simply do not have the time to discuss. With every minute that ticks by, our window of opportunity grows smaller. The spell must be done, and it must be done now. But I will leave you with this; never forget who you are, Erica Owens. Do this, and you shall never find yourself lost to the darkness.”, Maria said solemnly. Erica looked like she wanted to throttle her.
“SHUT UP, YOU’RE NOT MAKING ANY SENSE! PUT ME BACK IN MY BODY! TAKE ME HOME!”, Erica demanded. She had had enough of her riddles and ominous warnings, but Maria just shook her head. Erica felt her heart drop to her stomach.
“I’m afraid I cannot do that. Goodbye, Erica. I wish you luck in your new life. Tempus, fac voluntatem meam- ”
“NOW HOLD ON JUST A SECOND- !”
“ -Revertere horologium.”
─── ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽.* ｡ﾟ☆ﾟ. ───
When Erica regained consciousness, she wasn’t in the white abyss, nor was she at her parents’ grave stone. She was laying on much colder, harder ground in some place that clearly wasn’t home. Erica groaned and sat up.
“Ugh, my head… “, she said, feeling disoriented and a bit hung over from last night’s whiskey. As she took in her surroundings, she realized she wasn’t in the cemetery anymore. Well, she was in a cemetery, but it wasn’t one she recognised.
Erica did a quick look around, trying to take in all the details of her surroundings in the hopes they could give her a hint about where she was. Unfortunately, her searching didn’t tell her much, other than the fact that wherever she was was so cloudy and overcast it made Seattle look cheery.
The general consensus after taking everything in was that Erica was in a strange place with nothing but her bag, an annoyed looking Caliban and the clothes on her back. Great. Just great. She looked behind her and saw that she was laying in front of a moss-covered statue of a weeping angel. The statue was so lifelike, it made her feel slightly unnerved. She quickly turned back around so she wouldn’t have to look at it.
“Where the hell am I?”, she whispered to herself. Panic was starting to sink in. Grabbing her bag, Erica stood up and began to roam around the burial grounds with Caliban at her heels, hoping that a more in-depth search would give her answers. Or better yet, lead her to an exit.
Sadly, her quest for a way out wasn’t a quick one. Erica must have spent the better part of an hour roaming around the graveyard, staring at old headstones and marble crosses, each one more unnerving than the last. Usually Erica liked graveyards. They were quiet and the dead made surprisingly good company, given they couldn’t talk. But this one felt off to her. And she didn’t want to find out why that was.
It wasn’t long after thinking that when she finally managed to find a large wrought-iron gate at the base of a hill.
‘Finally, an exit!’, a very relieved Erica thought as she raced towards it.
She had no idea where she was or why Maria had been jabbering on about love spells and missing pieces, but surely after she got out of the cemetery she could figure out where she was and make her way back to the island from there. She might have to call the Aunts for help, though. Erica could only imagine their reaction.
‘I wonder what they’ll be more shocked by? That I met Maria herself or that I somehow managed to get flung to Timbuktu with magic?’, Erica contemplated as she pushed the gate open. It didn’t take much effort to get the squeaky hinges to give way, and soon she and Caliban were free of their eerie point of arrival. Once they were outside, Erica brushed off her dress and ran a hand through her hair before walking out into the street.
“Right. Well, let’s just hail a cab and– “
“OI, WATCH IT!”, a man with a very thick cockney accent called out as he raced by on a horse-drawn cart. Erica and Caliban narrowly avoided getting trampled when they stumbled back towards the gate, the cat yowling indignantly.
“What in the name of– ?!”, Erica started to sputter, because what the hell?! Then, she got a good look at the street and the rest of her surroundings and was rendered speechless.
Erica wasn’t in a modern city, or even in a small town. She seemed to have just walked onto a very old looking, late nineteenth century city block. The streets were lined with dirty brown buildings with murky, stained windows and faded wooden signs hanging over businesses. Men and women of all classes walked down the busy streets in frocks, waistcoats and bustled dresses, all of them looking like something straight out of a history book. Fine carriages and dingy carts rushed down the cobblestone streets at top speed, and in the distance, Erica could see a very well-known clock tower towering over the rest of the squat brick buildings in the area like a beacon, piercing the brown city smog like a lance.
‘Well, at least now I know where I am.’, Erica thought dryly as Big Ben began to chime loudly enough to be heard even from where she was, signaling that it was noon.
‘Now I’ve just gotta figure out when I am.’, Erica continued, because it would be delusional for her to deny she hadn’t ended up in a different time when everything was like this.
As luck would have it, she got her answer three seconds later, when an abandoned newspaper flew into her face on a breeze. She sputtered as she scrambled to get the loose paper off of her, and when she did, the first thing she saw was the headline on the front page. It read as follows;
Bryant & May Match Girls Continue Strike! Labor Union Set To Bargain With Factory Owners on the First Sunday of 1888!
Erica forced herself to remain calm on the outside, but on the inside, she was freaking out. To keep her control, she took a deep breath. She inhaled, then sharply exhaled, and said a phrase that aptly summed up her current situation.
“Well shit.”