The Witching Hour

Five minutes until three am. The witching hour. The night was completely silent with not even the sound of a crickets chirp or a creaky floorboard to break it.

Marcie made her way downstairs, heading for the kitchen despite the late hour. Getting a glass of water, she gazed out the window to the town below. Screams began and she shuddered at the thought of all those people enduring the bloodbath that was but once a year on Friday the thirteenth at the witching hour.

Trying her hardest to shut the blood chilling sound out, she turned to go back to bed to attempt some form of sleep. Lucifer knew it would be practically impossible while she still had her mortality.

Heavy breathing came from her left, towards the door leading outside. Scanning the shadows for whatever was there, a cold sweat broke out across her forehead and the hairs on her arms stood on end, prickling her skin. Not seeing anything there, she cautiously turned towards the stairs once more, one eye on the shadows.

A growl sounded behind her and she froze, her blood freezing in her veins. Breathing quickly, she dipped down to the well of power inside her, preparing for the fight of her life as she thought to herself about how easy it would be to subdue an attacker if she was immortal. Unfortunately she still had a few more days before her twentieth birthday. The day she would finally fall into the eternity of immortality.

This house was supposed to be off limits to the monsters just outside so how one got in confused her. As she was about to go on the offensive, the monster grabbed her and she screamed, all the spells she had ready flying out of her mind as she bucked to get out of its grip. The monster let her go as Marcie kicked and she fell to the floor sobbing as laughter started behind her.

Marcie looked over her shoulder at the creature only to find a wolf head on the floor, as her brother lay on the floor hysterical. She saw red as she stood up and advanced on him, grabbing his ear to yank him up. A growl laced her voice as she spoke to him. “Are you insane Leo?” He should have known how volatile she was right now with her birthday looming so close and her power itching to escape the place she had locked it deep inside her.

Red actually flickered in her eyes at the rage bubbling inside her as her brother finally calmed down. “Oh come on little sister, it was just a joke”, he reasoned, failing to placate Marcie.

“No, it was idiotic.” She ran her fingers through her black as pitch hair as she struggled to keep the lock on her power so it didn’t kill her completely mortal brother. She envied the fact that only the women in their family were affected by the curse of becoming an immortal killer. Looking back at him, she realised she had lifted him with her power, unknowingly holding him so he couldn’t move.

Dropping Leo to the floor, she headed to bed, promising she would get him back for what he pulled tonight. As she drifted off to sleep, the screams from the town finally faded and she dreamt of revenge and power.

Leo had gone too far this time, knowing that in just a few days, she would be one of the monsters he joked about. It was time he learned why they weren’t just ghost stories to make little children behave.