Witche's Book: BY A. Snell
Avery's feet pounded across thhe hard, compact dirt as she raced after her twin sister. Their mother's words still rang in their ears: "you cn explore, but stay close to the house and be back within an hour.
It was their first day at Carillon farmstead. The moving truck had just left after disposng all of their earthly possessions, the teens had been cramped inside their car for nearly six hours, and both were itching to use their feet.
"beat you" Zoe crowed as she slammed her outstretched hands into the closet of the dark, twisted trees. Avery, breathless and flushed, staggered to a halt a few feet behind.
"It's not fair. you had a head start." "story of our lives." Zoe poked her tongue out then began dancing into the forest. It was a joke-- Zoe had been born first, by barely twenty minutes, and liked to claim sh was more mature. Avery hadnicknamed her Granny in retaliation.
They wove into the forest, both admiring the towering trees that had likely been saplings when their greatt-grandmother had built the homestead. They'd never visited Carillon before -- their mother had mentioned something about an old family feud -- but, to everyone's surprise, the property had been bequeathed to them after Great-Grandmother Pearl's death.
A few feet into the woods brought them to a well-worn but narrow path. Zoe whistled as she saw 'it' "Look it's still got her footprints in it."
"No you're joking." Avery leaned close and saw, to her shock, there were indeed imprints of boots left in a section of dried mud. "but she's been dead nearly fifteen years." "Maybe her ghost still walks this path." Zoe whispered into Avery's ear, forcing Avery to flinch away from the tickling breath "cut it out." "Scaredy cat." Zoe laughed again and darted into the woods, disappearing among the trees. Avery had to jog to catch up. When she did, she found Zoe standing ahead of a small cottage-like shape "What is it?" she asked. "Bewats me." Zoe approached the door and tried turning the rusted handle . "Like a shed or something." The handle squaeled and broke off, and the twins glanced at each other guiltily . "Dont tell momand dad." "deal." Avery rubbed at her forrearms, which were developing goose bumps since she'd stopped moving. "I don't like this place, let's head back." The door had been set at a slight angle and ground inward as gravity fought against rusted hinges, Inside was dim but Avery could see a large stove, a wooden counter, andclose to a hundred bunches of crumbling, long dead herbs and leaves hung from a rack on the ceiling. "Whoa" Zoe stepped inside and turned toward a shelf holding a collection of jars "This is sick. Look Ave -- rabbits, lizards, and I don't even know what this one is." The jars held a collection of preserved animals. When Zoe picked up one that contained a rabbit, the creatures' fur swirled as it slowly rotated. "This must've been Grandma Pearl's," Zoe muttered, replacing the jar andexamining a series of dusty knives left out on the counter "It's like..It's almost like.." "I wnt to go home ." Avery had her arms wrapped around her torso as she hesitated in the doorway, Her voice shook and she licked her lips before repeating "Let's go home." Zoe turned a wide-eyed face toward her twin "It's like she was a witch!" "Please I want to go." zoe laughed, grimaced, and returned to the doorway. "Fine, all right. Stop being such a baby." Their beds still hadn't been reconstructed, so Avery and Zoe slept on their mattresses on the floor Even though this new house had twice the rooms as teir old city apartment, They chose to continue sharing a bedroom. Avery slept uneasily. Somtime after midnight a dull light brought her back to awareness and she rolled over to see Zoe had pulled her blankets up over her head and was reading a book by flashlight."what're you doing?" she mumbled "Shh" the blankets shifted as Zoe settled farther down. "I couldn't sleep. just reading" Avery scrunched up her face the boxes containing their books were all downstairs and she knew Zoe couldn't have walked over her without waking her "what book?" Zoe looking irritable, flipped the blankets off her face and help up a narrow dark volume. "I found it in the cottage, okay? now go to sleep." "ZO! are you crazy?" Avery sat up and scrubbed the sleep out of her eyes "put it away! what if it's cursed or something?" "Jeez i didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd flip out like tis." Zoe rolled her eyes and shuffled around to face Avery "It's not cursed. But listen , hexes , stuff like that I think Grandma Pearl really was a witch." Avery knew her voice was getting so loud that she risked weaking her parents, but she couldn't keep the urgency out of it. "then you shouldn't be meddling with it" "No lisen" Zoe insisted A manic light had entered her eyes "It says a witch can never truly be killed: her soul just passes into a new body. When a witch dies her conscience and powers are transferred to the next-born child in th family." Zoe pointed to herself. "Grandma Pearl died just two months before we were born I think.... I think she might have passed her powers on to me." "You are crazy!" tears prickled Avery's eyes. she snatched the book out of Zoe's hands and flung it across the room "it makes sense thought! thnk about it--why did Grandma Pearl leave her house to our family? it's so that she could give her home and her witch's hut to her new body I feel like if I can just study a bit, learn how it works." "Keep talking and ill scream." Avery threatened "I'll scream and wake up mom and dad and say you've been telling me horrible lies she'll ground you for years." Zoe's lips twisted she carefully shifted back onto her haunches "you're such a brat." "Yu're not a witch but you are freaking me out i want you to leave that hut and all of it's junk alone." Avery spat and roled over before Zoe could argue further When Avery stirred thefollowing morning Zoe's bed was empty she bolted up herself and struggled into her shoes, already dreading where her sister might have gone and what she could be doing. once she got to the cottage she forced the door open, crept toward the cottage and a dark figure shifted in the dark interior Zoe was sat at a table multiple books open ahead of her eyes distant as she recited incantations to herself "Zoe!" Avery balled up her hands into fists and finally her twin glanced at her expression darkened "Get out of here" this is my stuff i don't want you poking around. "You're not a witch." Avery repeated her voice rising to almost hysteical level Zoe stood and loomed closer, her expression ferocious she reached a hand forward and began reciting one of the pharses Avery's anger boiled over she reached for her sister and snatched her twin's wrist in her hand and channeled some of her power into it. Zoe yelped then screamed an invisible fire burned a ring around her hand she pulled it back and cradled it against her chest tears leaking from the corners of her eyes "You are not a witch." avery summoned additional power to rattle the jars on the walls and flutter the pages of the open books, "If you were you would have had to work your whole life to keep your identity secret" "But... Zoe fell back against one of the bookcases her face sheet white "But I'm the oldest." "No Our parents mixed us up when we werebabies." Avery stepped forward and sent a red thread of power out from her hand. Zoe tried to shy away but it looped around her throat and tightened threateningly "I'm not going to kill you," Avery whispered leaning close to her twin "You've been a good sister so far But this is your last warning.. Don't ever come into my nest , touch my ingredients or readmy books again."
thanks for reading, until next time, stay spooky
A
