Beware The Coven's Call

"By the power of the ancient gods, we seek retribution against selfish evil," Linda intoned, her eyes alight with a fiery intensity. "With this spell, the guilty will learn a lesson that her conscience shall never forget. Let her deeds return to her threefold." The spell didn’t rhyme, giving Linda an odd authority and increasing the feeling of power that began to course through the room. The women let their robes fall to the ground as they stepped forward into the meticulously drawn salt circle. Emily took her prescribed place, as dictated by the ritual Linda had taught them.

The cauldron in the center began to emit an eerie, phosphorescent glow, and the room quivered with an otherworldly energy. The coven's voices rose higher as they lilted in harmony, and they could feel the swell of ecstasy as the ritual reached climax. The build-up of energy threatened to tear them apart as they gyrated and twisted in the throes of arcane depravity, well beyond the point of concern and thought. Reaching the peak of their incantation, a deafening clap of thunder echoed, rattling the candles and causing the women to gasp in unison as their magic was released into the world. The spell had been cast, and they were left breathless, wondering if they had gone too far.

Linda lit a cigarette as she simply said to Emily, “Now go make a sandwich.” As Emily sat there, staring blankly into space, Linda clicked her tongue and snapped her finger. “Now, girl! The longer you wait, the more magic will escape and do god knows what.”

Emily blinked her eyes in recollection, before gathering her robes and scurrying away to the kitchen.

~

It was a typical Tuesday afternoon when Emily discovered that her lunch had been stolen. Again. For weeks, Emily suspected her coworker Sandra of pilfering her cherished tuna sandwiches, but she had no concrete proof. Emily’s ire gnawed for months, and she decided to take matters into her own hands. Step the first was to find the culprit.

Emily's investigation began with a carefully laid trap. She discreetly made her tuna sandwich with a subtle ingredient; an enchanted symbol that she had learned from a dusty old book she had stumbled upon in the local library was crafted into the sandwich. The sigil would reveal the truth, ensuring that the thief could no longer hide. Emily wasn’t quite sure how it all came to together, in the end, but it worked. She had tried it out on her cat’s breakfast this morning, and by the time she had left for work, Harold was glowing brighter than a Fukushima disaster worker. Emily laughed at her own joke. She was such a Miranda.

As lunchtime approached, Emily danced throughout the office in anticipation. Since she was hanging out in the breakroom anyway, she was able to observe Sandra's furtive behavior as she made her way to the fridge. With bated breath, Emily watched as Sandra grabbed not just Emily’s sandwich, but everybody else’s lunch as well, and took a bite from each one. Suddenly, the sigil on the sandwich activated and Sandra began to softly glow. The way Sandra had escalated her theft so brazenly, incensed Emily as she felt her breath quicken. Why was one sandwich no longer good enough? Emily’s nostril flared as her eyes narrowed, the scent of cheap pinesol assaulting her nostrils from a nearby mop sharing the cramped closet space.

Once Emily had witnessed Sandra's theft with her own eyes and seen the glowing sigil, she knew retribution was necessary and must be delivered swiftly. Her frustration had boiled over, leading her to seek out the Sisterhood of Silence, a coven of witches who welcomed her into their fold with open arms.

Luckily enough, her coworker Linda was their leader.

~

Sandra sat at her desk, staring at her computer screen but not really seeing the jumble of numbers and text. Her mind was preoccupied, and she couldn't escape the whirlwind of thoughts that had consumed her lately.

She knew her actions had overstepped in a big way. Taking her coworker's lunches was not just an act of petty theft; it was a betrayal of trust. As she sat there, she couldn't help but reflect on why she had resorted to such behavior.

The truth was, Sandra had felt invisible for far too long. In the bustling office, with its tight-knit groups and inside jokes, she had been a perpetual outsider. Her attempts to fit in had fallen flat, and she had often found herself alone during lunch breaks, eating her own plain Lean Cuisine while others laughed and chatted around her. It wasn't just about the lunches; it was about a desperate longing for belonging.

Sandra remembered the days when she had joined the office, eager for new friendships and challenges. She had arrived with hope and optimism, eager to find a place she belonged and that valued her contributions. But, as days turned into weeks and weeks into months, her optimism eroded. She became a shadow in the office, someone others rarely noticed or acknowledged.

One day, as she watched Emily from her desk, laughing with a group of colleagues, it hit her. The lunches had become a symbol of everything she lacked in her life. They represented the companionship she had yearned for, the laughter she had longed to share, and the feeling of being part of something greater than herself.

So, she had stolen their lunch. Not out of malice, but of desperation. They had become her feeble attempt to bridge the gap between her and her coworkers, to force them to notice her. It was a misguided cry for attention and a warped way of seeking inclusion in a world that had seemed determined to exclude her.

Sandra sighed, as the futility and pettiness of her actions stared at her up from the abyss and threatened to pull her down. She resolved to buy lunch next week for everybody, by way of apology. It’s unlikely anybody knew it was her anyway, given the way food had a way of disappearing from the fridge. It did not escape her notice that her new plan gave her a reason to invite her officemates to lunch. The voice of Sandra’s therapist echoed in her head.

~

Emily stalked the breakroom, her mind far from her work. Her sandwiches had been placed within the fridge, and she was too amped up with a jittery energy to focus on anything except her revenge. The sandwiches were a means to an end, a tool for her to exact the punishment Sandra so richly deserved. By bringing one in for everybody, each marked clearly to accommodate for various dietary restrictions, Emily ensured that Sandra would get her just desserts. She could barely contain her laughter at the thought of the chaos that was about to ensure this afternoon.

She had long suspected Sandra's thieving hands responsible for the missing food. Things had a way of disappearing around her kind, as if by magic. Emily’s tuna sandwiches, day after day, had disappeared and now she had proof of the deed with her own eyes. Sandra thought she was clever. Emily had seen the smirk on Sandra's face and the careless disregard for her efforts. But it wasn't the theft itself that bothered her the most; it was Sandra's audacity, her lack of remorse, and her continued betrayal. It was how Sandra had never even bothered to ask for a sandwich, and simply started stealing them. It was the way Sandra never ate lunch with the rest of the group, thinking she was better than everybody. It was the way Sandra was the worst. Emily spat.

Emily felt the power she held, feeling her body temperature rise as she focused on the injustice and suffering Sandra had caused. How many times had she resorted to ordering in, ruining her weight loss, because her lunch had gone missing? The simple sigil she had enchanted her sandwich with was a weapon, one she was willing to use to make sure justice was carried out. In her eyes, Sandra was no longer a coworker. No, Sandra was a canvas, and Emily was the artist of punishment; a goddess who was petty and cruel towards those who had slighted her.

Emily’s pen snapped with the strength of her furious tapping.

~

As Emily observed Sandra from her vantage point in the office, a devious smile curled at the corner of her lips. Emily couldn't help but relish in the satisfaction that washed over her, like a warm, comforting wave. For weeks, her precious tuna sandwiches had been pilfered without remorse, and now, the tables had finally turned.

Sandra's morning had unraveled in a spectacular fashion, and every mishap brought a gleeful twinkle to Emily's eyes. Sandra's complaints of bitter toothpaste and ill-fitting clothes felt like poetic justice, and Emily reveled in a sense of smug vindication.

Emily's satisfaction grew as Sandra left a voicemail for IT. She knew that this was residual magic at work, causing chaos and disruption in Sandra's life. Emily couldn't help but feel that this was Sandra's comeuppance, a taste of her own medicine. The ritual had worked. Sandra was fated to feel the fury of her coven’s curse upon eating the gifted sandwich.

As Sandra's colleagues discussed their own mornings, their discussions about karma were a clear sign of cosmic approval. Emily's delight knew no bounds. It felt as if the universe itself was conspiring to deliver the punishment that Sandra desperately deserved, and Emily was the chosen instrument.

The crowning moment of satisfaction came when Sandra, coming in late to lunch with that air of snobby self-superiority, took a bite of the sandwich Emily had prepared. Emily knew that the trap had been sprung and Emily released a laugh, catching the attention and laughter of her fellow coworkers; an ugly, venomously braying laugh. It was infectious, free from the rules that normally govern concerns as mundane as appropriateness. In her happiness, Emily allowed her true face to show for the first time in her adult life.

~

As Sandra sat alone in the breakroom, her thoughts grappled with joining her colleagues across the room. On the one hand, she knew that the sandwich meant that she wasn’t hated. It had been offered as part of an employee potluck, and Emily made sure to note her gluten-sensitivity. Made it special, just for her, she had said. A small kindness, but she was used to people rolling their eyes when she mentioned anything… not making her food specially taking the restriction into account. On the other hand, she knew her colleagues had been laughing at her misfortune all morning and frankly she was exhausted. She decided that, today, self-care meant that she needed some quiet time to decompress before returning to work and took a seat at a nearby table.

She stared at the sandwich on the table before her, the one she had received as a gift from Emily. It was no ordinary sandwich. It was a symbol of her transgressions, a test of her character, and a bridge that she didn't know if she had the strength to cross.

Sandra's fingers trembled as she unwrapped the sandwich, revealing its contents. It was a beautiful creation, meticulously prepared. The aroma of fresh ingredients wafted toward her nose, tempting her senses and eliciting a rumble from her empty stomach. It was a matter of office record that Emily made the best sandwiches. Linda, especially, frequently spoke highly of them.

She knew she had wronged Emily, that she had stolen her sandwich the other day out of a misguided attempt to fill the void of loneliness that had consumed her at the office. The theft had been a plea for inclusion, but it had been a hollow pursuit, one that had left her feeling even more isolated and guilty.

As Sandra took the first bite of the sandwich, a rush of conflicting emotions coursed through her. The flavors burst on her tongue, a symphony of tastes that Emily had assembled with an obvious attention to detail. It was a thoughtfully crafted sandwich; an olive branch extended in forgiveness.

With each bite, Sandra's guilt gnawed at her. She realized the magnitude of her actions and the pain she had caused Emily. The love evident in the sandwich left her confused, and she questioned whether she deserved this act of kindness, whether she could truly make amends for her own selfishness. She knew it was just a sandwich, but Sandra had never acted on impulse before, and the misery threatened to consume with the thought of her coworkers going hungry for the afternoon.

Tears welled in Sandra's eyes as she chewed the sandwich, her thoughts thrown into chaotic disarray. She resolved to thank Emily after lunch as the first step towards reconciliation. Perhaps there was a way to salvage this situation and turn it around for the best yet.

~

As Sandra rolled out of bed, she encountered a series of misfortunes that left her bedraggled and irritated. As she hurried to catch her bus to work, the umbrella she grabbed got caught in a sudden sweep of wind, leaving her bewildered in the pouring rain as the gust quickly carried it up and out of reach. She watched as the umbrella hit a power line and burst into flames. Sandra would have cried, if not for being already late. Perhaps she did anyway, and the tears were simply obscured by the rain.

There was no improvement upon entering the office. Sandra’s computer screen displayed nonsensical symbols and gibberish, causing her to lock herself out of her account. While she awaited IT to return her call, Sandra discovered her coworkers snarking and smirking behind their coffee cups as Sandra struggled to maintain a top that seemed to change size and shape with each breath. She kept overhearing the word “karma” drifting from across the room.

Entering the breakroom, refusing to be beaten by the day, Sandra opts to eat her sandwich alone. She grabs the sandwich with her name on it and retreats to a nearby table.

As she takes her first bite, she is abruptly transported to an otherworldly realm. Upon the distant shore of a golden river, the sound of bellowing signals a herd of nearby rhinoceros, gathering around a low flat rock not 20 ft away. Sandra slowly swallows the first bite of sandwich, marveling at the warmth of the sun upon her face as she processes the shock of freedom.

For the first time in a long time, she dances barefoot upon the shore as the grass tickles her feet, a sense of peace and wonder enveloping her. Boundaries between her past actions and new beginnings blur, leaving Sandra and Emily alone with their secrets.