Wiccan Laws - Prologue/Chapter 1

Wiccan Laws (Work. T)
Prologue
The first time I came to the city was to look at the university. I went with a friend, Andy, and we took the train. I must have been seventeen at the time, making him around twenty-one-ish, I think. I was amazed by it all – having only ever seen pictures of a city, I had never really been able to grasp how big everything was compared to country hamlets, and I felt dwarfed by it all. It wasn’t particularly pretty; I was disappointed by the lack of colour and thought that grey was too depressing for a place where so many people lived and worked. Andy explained that it was a costing issue, and that building took priority over painting. I asked him why the people didn’t paint it themselves, and he told me it was illegal. Stupid if you ask me.
         Andy had been to the city a few times before, and had offered to take me when I got my university acceptance mail. Mum would’ve liked to have taken me herself, but she had things to do in the hamlet. She trusts Andy though, and so do I, and I secretly preferred going with him than with her (guilty as charged for seconding my mum, but it was true). We had to run a bit from the station to the university, so I got brief glances at the monstrous skyscrapers and various other city features, including a huge, wall-mounted tele-screen and a grubby fountain. The university tour was much slower, though, and filled me with excitement, particularly when we got to the department I’d been accepted into: Creative Studies.
         I could barely sit still through lunch. Andy (bless him) was good enough to sit in silence and listen as I rambled – somewhat incoherently – about how amazing it was and how lucky I was to have been picked to come here. I must have paused long enough for him to promise me a city tour because I then got equally excited about that. I think he also muttered something about me being seven, not seventeen. But the city tour did come. We saw a museum, an E-Block, the grubby fountain I saw earlier, a really old Ferris wheel, a fancy cocktail bar, and a church. I marvelled at how big it was compared to Church back in the hamlet, and Andy told me that hamlet churches were the smallest kind because there were fewer people attending. It made sense, but I was still in awe. It was one of the highlights of a day that, all in all, had been going pretty good. And when I say “had been going”, I mean it soon stopped being good.
         We were on our way back to the station when it happened. Nobody expected it to – they very rarely do – so chaos quickly followed. A Spirit attack. There were only four of them, and it was over quite quickly, but it was enough to scare the entire square. They had appeared out of nowhere and attacked a bin cleaner. He literally hadn’t seen them coming: one smashed the back of his head, and that was that. It was just a case of how badly they could mash him up after that. I hope it didn’t hurt. I remember them so well… completely white figures, save for a bit of dark hair peeking out from under coloured hats of varying sorts. They also had a coloured band around their wrists, ones that matched their hats. There was light blue, light green, yellow… I think one of them had a tail.
         I didn’t stare at them too long because people started screaming, running. I heard Andy yelling at me from somewhere. Seeing a dark blue hoody that looked like his, I ran after it, struggling to keep my feet as person after person hurtled into me. We wanted to get away from the Spirits. I lost sight of the hoody. I was calling out for him, hoping he’d pull me out of the swarm. People ran. I ran too, blind. Somehow, I made it out of the crowds – but I was lost. I didn’t recognise the new square I stood in. I couldn’t identify anyone. I couldn’t see Andy.

Lord knows how I made it home. I hadn’t wanted to go back to the station on my own, I know that much; but get home I did. Andy wasn’t with me.

1.
By the time I finally left for university I was the most talked about person in my hamlet. And the next, probably. They all think I did something to him, left him penniless or badly beaten in a strange place for city gremlins to eat him. I didn’t tell anyone what had happened, only that I didn’t know where he was. I pretended everything was fine. I even managed to convince myself.
         I was anxious about returning to the city. I travelled alone this time. There was a university member waiting at the station to greet new students, though, and once there were twenty-two of us she led the group to the Halls of Residence. We walked a familiar route; after one year it looked exactly the same. The skyscrapers, the grubby fountain, even the E-Block. And the spot where it happened. My stomach flipped and I looked away, memories of coloured hats threatening to send me into hysterics. A thought suddenly made me look up, though, and I scanned the crowd we walked through. No. I still couldn’t see Andy.
         “Are you okay?” a voice asked. I jumped and turned round. One of the girls was watching me curiously. She had pale, honey-coloured hair with pink undertones that stopped just below her shoulders, and bright blue eyes that sort of matched. “Have you never been to a city before?”
         “I-I have,” I stammered, managing a smile. “It’s just that I don’t have fond memories of it.”
         “Tell me about it,” she scoffed. “All concrete and metal and rules.” She made a face. “Nasty.”
         “Oh, that didn’t really bother me,” I mumbled.
         “Then what’s with the frown?”
         I looked away slightly. “I lost someone…”
         “Ah, okay, say no more,” she said. A smile lit her face and she offered her hand. “I’m Scarlett.”
         I smiled back, nowhere near as broadly as she did, and took her hand. “Jaimie.”
         Scarlett blinked. “Jaimie Stetton?”
         “Er, yeah?”
         Her eyes widened. “No way! I think we’re roomies!”
         “Really? How do you know?”
         She shrugged. “I had a sneak peek at her list,” she said, indicating our guide. “I saw ‘J.Stetton’ and just guessed your surname.” She grinned. “Haven’t scared you already, have I?”
         I looked back over my shoulder at the spot. It was grey – completely grey. No white, blue, yellow or green there. Or red. “No,” I said, turning back to her. “You haven’t yet.”

Scarlett wasn’t in my department but she made a point of finding me during our breaks. I liked her – she was loud, energetic, fun to be with and outgoing. A lot of things I wasn’t. She involved me, though, and never told me I was crazy or otherwise. In fact, I’d have told her she was crazy. I did the night she suggested we go on an adventure.
         “At this time in the evening? Are you crazy?” Spirits were on my mind again, and I didn’t want to walk the streets alone with just Scarlett, no matter how strong she seemed.
         “Relax,” she told me. “We’d only go down the hall. You know, to meet our neighbours?”
         “Oh.” The relief was intense, and I tried not to let it show. “That sounds okay, then.” She snickered and pulled me out of our room. The first few doors we knocked on weren’t answered, but the one at the end of the corridor proved successful. The girl who answered was a little shorter than me and had very pale blonde hair. She was pale skinned too, but had clear green eyes that studied us anxiously. Seeing it was just us two, she visibly relaxed and opened her door a little.
         “Sorry,” she said in a musical voice. “I thought you might have been staff. Can I help?”
         I was happy to let Scarlett do the talking. “Hi, my name’s Scarlett and this is Jaimie. We live a couple of doors down and thought we’d meet everyone else.”
         The girl smiled. “Oh, well, my name’s Laura. Uh, my roommate’s out at the minute, but her name’s Rebecca.”
         “Really?” Scarlett asked, one eyebrow raised. “Then who’s that behind you?”
         Sure enough, a figure was trying to creep through the flat unseen. Realising he – yes, he – had been caught, he gave up. Laura rolled her eyes. “This is Matt. He’s my boyfriend.”
         “Hi,” Matt said sheepishly from behind her. He was a bit taller than me with chocolate-y brown hair and light brown eyes.
         “You won’t tell anyone he’s here, will you?” Laura asked anxiously.
         I shook my head as Scarlett snorted. “Please! Rules are meant to be broken.” She nodded approvingly. “Good one.” Laura quickly introduced us to Matt then invited us in, but Scarlett had an idea. “Would you mind if we saw who else was in and then came back with them? We could have a sort of ‘get-together-and-meet’ kind of thing.”
         Laura glanced at Matt, who said “I’m game,” and then agreed with Scarlett’s scheme. And so we knocked on another unresponsive door before meeting our last neighbour.
         This girl was nervous, like Laura had been, but in a different way. I suspected she was a little socially awkward. She had brown hair like Matt but a bit glossier and much longer, and her wide eyes were a pretty hazel colour. She had darker skin than a lot of people I knew, and her clothes were stand-out as well. None of this put Scarlett off, though. “Hi, we’re your neighbours!” she practically shouted. “This is Jaimie, I’m Scarlett, and you are…?”
         The girl blinked, a little stunned. “Breach,” she said.
         “Breach?” She nodded. “Well Breach, is your roommate in? Because some of us are gathering at Laura’s – she lives down the hall – so that we can get to know each other a bit better. Fancy coming?”
         Breach chewed her bottom lip. “My roommate’s not here, actually,” she mumbled.
         “Aw, then all the more reason for you to join us!” She still looked uncertain so I decided to reassure her.
         “We’re not all as crazy as Scarlett,” I said with a smile. “So far there’s only us two, Laura, and her boyfriend.”
         “Yeah, we won’t make you do anything horrible,” Scarlett continued. “In fact, I’ll do all the talking, and you can just laugh at me, yeah?”
         Breach stifled a giggle. “Alright,” she said. And so that’s how we met: sat in Laura’s flat with a pizza directory and an over-active Scarlett taking the lead.
         “We should tell each other the basic information,” she suggested.
         “Like where we’re from and what we’re studying?” Laura asked.
         “Yeah. Oh! And one extra piece of information.”
         Matt groaned. “Don’t they make you do that in College? Like when you start a new class, or something.”
         “Icebreakers,” I said.
         “Right – but this’ll be fun because there’s only a few of us and we all sort of already know each other. Ish,” Scarlett insisted.
         “Do you want to go first then?” Laura asked.
         “Sure! Okay – my name’s Scarlett. I’m eighteen and come from Handley town, and I’m studying Free Art. My extra fact… Oh! I have six brothers and three sisters.”
         “You’re one of ten?” Matt asked incredulously.
         “Yep. I came somewhere in the middle. My youngest brother is only just three and my oldest brother turns twenty-seven in a few months.” She looked at Laura. “How about you?”
         “Um, my name’s Laura, I’m eighteen, I come from Feller Street, and I’m studying Foreign Culture, and…” She shrugged. “I like music.”
         “The really loud kind,” Matt added, and she elbowed him in the side.
         “And you?” Scarlett asked.
         “I’m Matt, I’m eighteen, I come from Gransby Street, and I’m studying History because I don’t know who my real parents are.”
         “You’re adopted?” I asked hesitantly.
         He nodded. “I figured that if I couldn’t find out my own family history, I’d look at the history of other stuff.”
         “Makes sense,” Scarlett said, then turned to me with a slightly evil grin. “Your turn Jaimie!”
         I gulped. “Uh, I’m Jaimie, I’m eighteen, I came from Tartle Hamlet to do Creative Studies, and this is only my second visit to a city.”
         “Only your second?” Laura echoed.
         “Well she has lived in a hamlet,” Matt pointed out.
         “When was your first visit?”
         “Last year.” I hoped she wouldn’t ask any more about it; I was already getting flashes of Spirits.
         “Tell us about it later, yeah?” Scarlett cut in. Grateful for her interjection, I smiled and nodded. “Great. And, last but not least… Breach!”
         Breach sat next to me, fiddling with the ends of her hair. She didn’t really look at us, and I sympathised with her a little. “My name’s Breach,” she said quietly. “I’m nearly nineteen, I come from Opel Village, and I’m studying Biology.”
         “Opel Village? Isn’t that in the mountains?” Laura asked. Breach nodded.
         “Wait!” Scarlett said. “You haven’t given us an interesting fact!”
         Breach glanced up at us worriedly, as if she was measuring our reactions or something, and paused before telling us the extra fact. “I’m… I’m part Wiccan.”
         My heart froze. Wiccans were a magical race that held powers of healing and small elemental abilities, and Breach’s revelation explained some things about her. People who were part Wiccan didn’t inherit these abilities, but did have one unique trait: the ability to summon Spirits. As my pulse quickened in fear, I noticed that everyone else seemed fascinated.
         “So you’ve lived with Wiccans?” Laura said. She and Matt had leant forward a little on the sofa.
         Breach smiled. “Yeah, but I lived there and here with my dad every three months so that I got a double education.”
         “Wasn’t that hard?” asked Matt.
         She shook her head, her lovely brown hair rippling in the light. “I got used to it, and my schools made special arrangements for me.”
         “Can you summon Spirits?” Scarlett asked. Before she could answer I stepped in.
         “Is that wise? I mean, there’s not a lot of space in here…”
         “That’s not a problem,” Breach said. I must have looked sick because she smiled reassuringly at me. “She won’t hurt you – I promise. I won’t let her.”
         “We won’t let her,” Scarlett added. I was only comforted a little, though, but didn’t say anything else. Breach was as eager to show us her Spirit as the others were to see it. I was in the minority.
         Adjusting the way she sat, Breach rubbed her forearms and closed her eyes, holding her hands out in front of her. A faint crease between her eyebrows showed us she was concentrating. A moment later, golden runes began to appear on her arms, glowing softly like the sun. As the seconds passed, so more runes appeared and the brighter they glowed, and a soft white ball began growing in the space between her palms. When no more runes appeared, a strand of white trailed from the glowing ball like smoke from a chimney, drifting to the middle of our small circle where it pooled out into a shape. As the smoke grew in size, I found it harder to breathe, and when at last the Spirit was fully formed, I was shaking where I sat.
         She was very pretty – there was no denying that. Completely white apart from blossom-pink hair and a matching wristband, she was only wearing a simple dress that stopped just below her knees. I was a little estranged at her hands and feet, which weren’t hand or foot shapes – more like, her arms and legs just tapered into slender points, almost like a paintbrush head. Floating above us, she gazed down at us with an angelic face. Breach grinned up at her. “Everyone, this is Denise.”
         Even Scarlett was speechless. Denise smiled first at her, then at Matt and Laura, before her eyes settled on me. Instantly her expression changed. She looked sad. As she began to drift down towards me I had to forcibly tell myself to stay still, though instinct was screaming at me to run. Coming to rest on her knees in front of me, Denise looked directly into my eyes. I found myself looking into hers and unable to look away. They weren’t human – they were silver.
         “Poor child,” she said, her voice washing over me like a shower of petals. “Do not worry. You have nothing to fear from me.” And with that, she leant forward and wrapped her delicate arms around my neck. My mind went blank. She was hugging me… she was so warm. Memories of the attack began playing themselves in my head. Helpless to stop them, and images of Andy disappearing through the streams of panicking people, I let go of the barrier that had built up inside me since that day. I cried. I hugged that Spirit back and wept into her shoulder, not caring that everyone was probably confused. Right then, I was being healed.