II. New Home

The first thing I thought when I woke up and saw my new family was; these girls seem normal. Out of all the thoughts I would have in my new life, this would be the furthest from the truth.

To give some backstory it had only been a month when I had even any suspicions of being a witch. That thought had occurred on the first day of accepting my new life. So in all honesty, I blame it on the fact I was 14 and new to all this.

When I did wake up it was in a very “uninteresting” room, it was painted beige with a queen sized bed with all white floral print covers and white curtain décor. The interesting thing waking up, was not the room itself but the 4 girls who had been in the room waiting for me to regain consciousness. They all seemed to be my age or only a few years older, and they were all sitting around in chairs wearing leggings and sweaters watching the Kardashians.

“Oh she’s up!” The most petite and young looking of the group with the bright red hair said. “I told you all, Grandfather Clock is never wrong. I timed it at 36 hours and 27 minutes since I scanned her.”

“We never doubted you Amanda.” The oldest looking girl said, “We were just getting sick of waiting, and started hoping your familiar was off. It gets so boring here, so a new sister is something to keep us entertained.”

“Uhhhh hey… wasn’t I just in jail?” I uttered out in confusion as I leaned up with a smile. “I just remember catching on fire and,” just as i tried to finish my sentence the older looking girl, who was clearly the pack leader, cut off my sentence.

“You probably were.” she then sighed, “Mistress Crowley was scouting you for over a month, most times it takes that long to bring a sister back here, she's in jail or worse. Just be lucky you're here now. Most girls aren't worth the trouble of bringing back and covering up what they did, so they end up ‘missing.’”

“Missing?!” I replied shocked.

“Yeah missing. All you impures that lost the connections to the covens just cause nothing but problems for those of us that never threw away what we are. Not all of us hate our gifts! The headmistress works tirelessly to ‘tie up loose ends’, but sometimes she brings back a stray dog if she thinks she's worthy.” The girl with the bleach blonde hair and perfectly symmetrical face said. “You’re the first stray in 10 years and you aren't even 16 yet. So we all got a little curious.”

“So what’s your power?” Said the girl with the mocha skin and brown hair, who had sat back patiently listening to me get my lecture.

“Uhhh… I don’t really know.” I retorted, ”It seems like it has something to do with fire. I still barely have a grasp on what’s going on.”

“Okay that explains everything!” the brown haired girl responded, “That’s why your familiar is the phoenix. You're so lucky.”

“Familiar?” I responded, “What the heck is that?” Just as I continued to ask my question, the same woman in all black who had been the last thing I saw of my old life barged into the room.

“In the terms of your old life, it’s a pet.” The woman said bustling with excitement to the point she smiled. “And as it is in your new life, it’s a spirit partner for whom you have a contract with. In said contract, the familiar chooses you; based on compatibility. Don’t worry about that right now. For now it's time that you eat and see your new home, you already met some of your new family, time to see your new home.”

“Uhhh okay.” I shuddered, realizing how much worse being the new girl here was to being a new coming freshman in the Cleveland high school I had been so previously scared of going to. As I had gotten out of bed I noticed I was wearing a smooth black dress, the same as Miss Crowley's. The dress felt so weightless on my body it was as though I was in nothing but my bra and underwear.

“Girls, did you even introduce yourselves to Carmen? Or did you simply boggle the poor confused girl after she had just woken up?” Mistress Crowley said, as she did; without hesitation the four girls, almost in order of seniority, said their names.

“My name is Sydney.” the oldest looking, prettiest, and meanest blurted out.

“Hi Carmen my name Is Amanda!” the tiny young looking spunky redhead shouted with a smile.

“I'm Casey.” the girl with the brown hair and mocha skin said.

“I'm Lori.” the last girl blurted out shyly.

Lori was the one that was the most mysterious in my eyes, never talking and had her jet black bangs in her face, while holding a doll. The doll was a patchwork looking lion and had many acupuncture needles sticking out of it. What was more noticeable, was that even the headmistress had not had a black witches hat on yet Lori did.

“Well now that you girls have proven you have manners. Let us show our new sister our wonderful house.” the headmistress said cheerfully, as all the girls followed in line to outside the boring looking room. It was then that I learned my room was the least boring part of the very grand manor I would now spend my new life in.

***

Just as I had gotten acquainted with things that seemed normal, that was when we were tasked with “training” for the next blue moon. This was something I could never be prepared for.

“All right ladies line up, let's show the new girl what a witch looks like. She may be the phoenix familiar’s chosen, but she can't even cast a spell. Let's show her what happens when you work hard.” Headmistress Crowley said proudly. These were the words I heard as I was now in the basement training room, watching my new sisters line up like military drones.

Amanda was first in line and as soon as the mistress finished she went into action. All she had to do was wave her fist in a circular motion and purple smoke came out! As soon as the smoke cleared the straw dummy that was her target had turned to ash. “Better time headmistress?” Amanda cheered.

“Doing good Amanda.” The headmistress said happily, “I just want you to be able to age the target to dust within a minute by the blue moon.” The headmistress stopped and looked over at Sydney. “Sydney, let's show Carmen what a Monigue can do.”

Just then Sydney took off her jacket and put her hands against the ground. Within seconds vines of thorny rose bushes came up, from underneath the concrete of the hidden basement they were training in. The vines swarmed the target and began moving in a circular motion while wrapped around the dummy like thorny chainsaws, and literally cut the target to pieces. This girl who I was already afraid of has the ability to shred things apart in seconds.

“How was I Miss headmistress?” The killing machine that was prettier than me responded.

“Good roses as sharp as steel! Like we've said in the coven for generations ‘nothing can cut through a like a Monigue.’” She said laughing happily but in a proud way.“ Alright time for part two.”

Just then the roses began to change into nothing but beautiful flowers and wrapped the shredded up target pieces. As a pink smoke filled the air, all the pieces vanished, and a marigold appeared.

“Why is there a marigold there?” I asked stupidly. “Where did the pieces go?”

“Oh my naïve child, my baby Phoenix.” The headmistress said smiling. “Her family’s a descendant from one of the 9. Her family is tasked with keeping the balance going, all souls must pass on and all that's left must return to our mother earth. But the marigold specifically is her way of appreciating what was lost and showing the beauty in returning to nature.” She pauses, “In this case it might be more for show though darling.” the headmistress said laughing. “But most times she uses it when it has meaning. Okay Lori! It's your turn.”

Just then, a girl so shy she wouldn’t ask for the salt at dinner turned into a commando. Lori moved her bangs and veil out of her face, and pulled the needles out of the ugly doll. As soon as she did her doll began to grow in size to that of a lion and came alive.

“Attack.” Lori uttered.

The ugly doll then entered attack mode and ripped the straw target to shreds with its claws and fangs. Lori smiled then said “return”, and the doll came back to her, shrunk, and jumped back into her arms. The scariest thing about a doll changing forms, coming to life and destroying something in less than a minute, was Lori's casual look as if nothing had actually happened.

“How was that headmistress?” Lori said ambitiously.

“That was great my Babydoll!” she said sweetly, “But by the blue moon you need to be able to at least control two low level dolls at a time.”

“Okay headmistress!” Lori said with more excitement than I have seen her with all day. “By the blue moon I’ll have 3.”

Then, without talking but getting the headmistresses nod Casey began to attack her target. She outstretched her arms and all that I could see was her target slowly turn to ice. She then snapped her fingers and the target broke into a thousand tiny shards.

Was there not one girl here I could not be petrified of?

In my defense, I still felt that the one with the ability to make me 60 years old was the scariest. It was then after this display the headmistress walked me to my target.

“Great ice Casey, cold as ever my darling. The headmistress then looked at me. “Whatever you can do Carmen. Cast a spell on the dummy. Your next target might move a lot more!” The headmistress said. At this point I was at a loss. I had never actually casted a spell at anything.

The last time I was awake I was still convinced witches were in ghost stories. And to top it off, I am in the room with 4 people that are only a little older than me and can make razor blades out of rose petals.

I don’t know exactly what I did but I screamed and wanted the target gone. When I opened my eyes, it was on fire. I had won.

Heck yeah! These girls might be scary but I can bring to the team.

It was when I looked around I saw all 4 girls laughing at me. The little red head that turns things to dust then said, “No not your familiar Carmen, just one of your spells. Ya know to get loosened up.”

She was then interjected by Sydney, “She can’t do it, all she did was call her familiar. That’s all she knows how to do.”

“Yes girls that is true. Carmen can only call Phoenix right now, but she is also only 14 and we all know what that was like, so give her slack.” The headmistress said, cutting off Sydney.

“Yes headmistress” the other girls said in unicen.

“But that concludes today’s training. Thank you for sho….” Suddenly as though out of nowhere I became drowsy, so much so I could barely keep my eyes open before the headmistress could finish her sentence. I fell asleep right then and there. I guess this Phoenix thing takes its toll on you.