“They comin’, Mama.”
“Who comin’, chére?”
“Spirits, Mama. They outside.”
“You in the Hounfor again, chére? Without permission?”
“I’m sorry, Mama. I was lookin’ at the books.”
“You not old enough for them books, chére.”
“I’m seventeen, Mama.”
“Like I said.”
“They gettin’ closer.”
“Well, what did you think they was gonna do, chére? They always out there. You sit tight. At least you in a safe place.”
Mama is yellin’ from the kitchen. I know I ain’t suppose to be in here; not without a “grownup”. But she don’t want to teach me anything. She leave me in the house all alone and all I want to do is learn. She think I don’t know who I am, what I am, what we are. So today when she go out to do the shopping, I get all dressed up because I’m a Witch Queen, me. And I ain’t goin’ in there in my camisole.
And it ain’t fair, not teachin’ me anything. I ain’t a little girl; I’m seventeen, and I had a dream demons was comin’ in through the chimney vent, and they was after me because my power make them hungry, and I ain’t got no training and no shields, so I’m a proper target, me.
I can still hear them. They callin’ my name. How they know my name? They probably stole our mail or something.
“Mama! Mama, how they know my name?”
“They know everybody name, chére. They don’t know your secret name unless you tell them, so don’t you dare.”
They scrapin’ claws across the wall outside. Spirits ain’t suppose to have claws. I’m scared now.
So I sit down at the spirit table, and I wait.
And the lights get brighter, and the rose starts glowin’, and all the sounds in the world go quiet except for the spirits outside, but they ain’t making noise regular folks can hear, them.
For a minute, two minutes, it’s like music. All those voices. They singin’ to me. They tell me their names. They got names. And stories. They ain’t scary. Why I ever think they scary?
There’s a little noise nearby, a door softly opening and closing, but it ain’t important. Little girl tellin’ me about her papa and how she miss him, that’s important.
Everything feel blurry and far away. I tell the little girl, no, her daddy ain’t here, but if I see him in town, I tell him how she miss him. I know I’m talkin’ out loud and I know I don’t need to but I do anyway.
They’s a creak as Mama sits down on the stool opposite me. “Oh, baby,” she say. “Oh, baby girl.”
Mama always say to people visiting, you don’t like my face when I talk to spirits, sometimes it get ugly and screwed up, you just look at them pretty witch balls up on the wall, and I tell you everything with my voice and you won’t miss nothin’ important.
“I ain’t no baby, Mama.”
“I know, chére. You ain’t no more.”
“Mama, you feel distress lookin’ at me, you just watch them witch balls, OK?”
“OK, chére.”
Then, everything go dark.
Style Card:
Body: Maitreya
Head: Catwa, Lona
Eyes: Mesange, Eternal Eyes
Ears: Lumae, Leevi Long Ears
Skin: 7 Deadly s{K}ins, Vyra (Available NOW at Appliqué!)
Hair: Fabia, Arina (Available NOW at Hairology!)
Headpiece: Aisling, Ezrah Crown
Dress: Silvan Moon Designs, Union of Souls Gown (Coming October 19 to The Trunk Show!)
Boots: Wicca’s Wardrobe, Witch Boots
Setting: The Looking Glass, The Hounfor (Available NOW at The Secret Affair!)
No, I didn’t grow up in New Orleans. But I did go to college in Lafayette, Louisiana (Thass the capitol of French Louisiana, cher. Thanks are due once again to the amazing imaginations of Sharni Azalee, Bee Dumpling and SolasNaGealai, and Izara Allen-Zuta, whose combined talents always spark fun stories like this.)
Three Twisted Knots 
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