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-One-
The circle was open.
“I sing to the guardians of the Watchtowers of the East,” Nancy chanted. She wasn’t singing, not really, but it was close enough, and they all would have felt silly singing, anyway. Rochelle’s parents weren’t home and no one could hear them in the basement, but they weren’t girl scouts gathering around a campfire. Their voices had meaning. “Powers of air and invention, hear us.”
“I sing to the guardians of the Watchtowers of the South,” Bonnie said. Her eyes were closed and she was swaying back and forth. Losing herself in the words, in the ritual. “Powers of fire and feeling, hear us.”
Rochelle wrapped her hand a little tighter around Bonnie’s, and Bonnie squeezed back, lending her strength. “I sing to the guardians of the Watchtowers of the West,” she said. “Powers of water and intuition, hear us.”
Nancy took the lead role, because she always did. No one gave it a second thought. She was the most powerful, after all. The beating heart of the body of the coven.
“We sing to the guardians of the Watchtowers of the North,” she said, because they had no true Fourth. Bonnie and Rochelle joined in then. “Powers of mother and earth, hear us,” the three of them said together.
“Oh, that You would fill us,” Nancy said. Her voice was low and it seemed like her lips barely moved. “We ask that You would fill us, we ask that You would complete us. We offer ourselves to You freely, a love offering, a gift of our bodies and minds to Your power.”
“Oh, that You would fill us,” Rochelle stepped in, and then Bonnie, too, until the three of them were chanting. “That You would complete us. We ask You to fill us, we ask You to complete us.”
They repeated the chant once more, and then Nancy lifted her head and her voice was her own again.
“An offering of the flesh,” she said, “that Manon would know our devotion to Him.”
Bonnie made a move for the athame, lying in the middle of their circle, but Nancy shook her head.
“Flesh, not blood,” she said. Her teeth glittered in the candlelight. “A different kind of offering.”
She brought her hands down to her waist, crossing her arms over her chest, and a moment later her black tee was pulling over her head, revealing the black lace bra and pale skin underneath.
“In the olden days, spells were finished with a meeting of the bodies and minds,” she said. “If we’re asking for completion, it’s the least we can do.”
“I don’t want to - my scars - ” Bonnie said, her voice trembling.
“You know we see how beautiful you are,” Rochelle said. She rose then, breaking the circle as she took her left hand from Nancy’s right, and crouched down in front of Bonnie. They locked eyes, and Rochelle could feel Bonnie waiting to be convinced. They breathed in and out together, and Rochelle took Bonnie’s other hand from Nancy, forming a closed circle between the two of them for a greater connection. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“You’re with your sisters, and Manon,” Nancy agreed. “You’re safe here.”
“Can we….” Bonnie hesitated, not sure how to ask for what she wanted. Then she just said it, because she was with her sisters. “Can we blow out the candle? I don’t want to see myself.”
Nancy blew the candle out then, and the next thing Bonnie knew, her own shirt was being lifted over her shoulders by a pair of someone’s hands. She found it didn’t really matter who, in the dark. Her shirt scratched over her scars, in the rough way that she would hear without feeling, or feel with no real pain.
Then someone’s lips were on hers, and she knew it must be Nancy because of the waxy feel of the lipstick. But it didn’t matter, in the dark; they were all disciples, and all one, more powerful together. She kissed Nancy back, and reached out her hand to the short, curly hair, wrapping her fingers and pulling, just a little. Then Rochelle’s arms were linking around her from behind, her bare breasts pressing against Bonnie’s scarred back, and Bonnie threw back her head and laughed.
-Two-
The sleepover hadn’t been planned, but none of them wanted to be alone after their ‘field trip,’ intoxicating and empowering and full of each other. They had been reliving it ever since they got on the bus back home, with whispered conversations and the occasional burst of giggles.
They had gotten quieter now, as the night wore on and more normal sleepover behavior was taking over, but Sarah wasn’t surprised when Nancy brought their ritual up again. The rest of them could cycle back down to the mundane, get caught up braiding hair and watching their favorite movies from Blockbuster, but Nancy was always looking for the high of power, far more intoxicating than a fourth of a bottle of wine.
“You want Chris Hooker to like you, right?” Nancy asked, and Sarah knew she wasn’t imagining the scorn in Nancy’s voice.
Bonnie and Rochelle were sitting this one out, over by the bed, but it was clear that they were listening. Bonnie had been painting Rochelle’s fingernails, and she had stopped halfway through one hand, so she wouldn’t get a purple stripe all across Rochelle’s fingers. Sarah couldn’t blame them for staying quiet. Even if she and Chris had been flirting before she had ever talked to Nancy, there was still a sense that she was treading on Nancy’s territory. On ground that she already been crossed over.
“I know, I know,” she groaned. “He’s an asshole, he doesn’t deserve any of us…. But I can’t help it.” She was expecting Nancy to challenge her, to remind her of the rumors Chris had spread about both of them, the way he and his asshole friends thought they were above any consequences.
“You ever do a love spell before?” Nancy asked. She seemed to have put aside her grudge against Chris for the moment, and she was watching Sarah intently through black-lined eyes.
“You know I haven’t,” Sarah said. She was starting to feel more comfortable in the coven, but she still came from a different world than the other girls. All of the ritual was new to her and she felt awkward and inexperienced.
“Well, you know, any spell is stronger when you seal it with a kiss,” Nancy told her.
“So I’m supposed to kiss Chris?” Sarah laughed. “That’ll be real easy, since he won’t come anywhere near me.”
“Not Chris,” Nancy groaned, rolling her eyes theatrically. “Were you born yesterday? You need to kiss one of your sisters. Someone with power.”
Sarah could tell it was a test. Nancy was always watching her, pushing her, driving her. There was a divide between them that Sarah had never planned, but it was there, and it wouldn’t go away. This was a chance to hold on to her own.
“You said ‘allow myself to be loved more by others,’” Nancy reminded her. “That doesn’t mean just Chris Hooker the meathead, even if you wanted him in particular. So open yourself to me. Let me help you. It’ll give the spell more power, and maybe I can show you a thing or two. Something better than your hand or your pillowcase.” She was goading Sarah, and it was working. Sarah felt a ripple of excitement – part of it was rising to the challenge, to the competition Nancy had set up between them. And part of it was curiosity. Curiosity about whether it would help the spell. And curiosity about what it would be like to kiss Nancy.
“Okay,” she said. “Perfect love and perfect trust, right? So what do we do? Is there something special we have to say?”
Nancy pursed her lips. “No, but it works better if you’re thinking about it,” she said. “Close your eyes and think about what you want. Love yourself, and allow yourself to be loved by others.”
Bonnie and Rochelle weren’t even pretending to ignore them now. Sarah raised her eyebrows, then let her face relax and closed her eyes.
Love yourself, she told herself and allow yourself to be loved by others. But as soon as she had thought the words, another thought sprang into her mind. The love she had for her coven; perfect love, and perfect trust.
The words hadn’t even finished forming in her mind when Nancy jumped forward, kissing her full on the mouth.
“Woohoo!” she heard Rochelle cheering, and Bonnie let out an admiring whistle, equal parts appreciation for Sarah’s magic working through the room and for the show they were putting on.
Sarah kissed Nancy back, even though she wasn’t sure what either of them was supposed to be getting out of this. She wondered whether Nancy had kissed Chris, and what it meant that now she was kissing Nancy. But she didn’t think about that for long, because Nancy was a good kisser, even if she was trying to get the upper hand even in that, taking Sarah’s breath away. Nancy had a talented tongue – and Sarah wasn’t at all surprised to find that out – and there was warmth and electricity passing between them. Sarah could feel the magic ringing in her teeth, leaving psychic impressions where Nancy had been.
Nancy was pressing up against her, and Sarah could feel the bare skin of Nancy’s cleavage against her own bare shoulder, warm and smooth. She put a hand in Nancy’s hair, just to see what it would be like, and Nancy responded enthusiastically. She was practically sitting in Sarah’s lap then.
“Wow,” Sarah said, pulling away. “Is that… was that me, or were you just?” She could taste Nancy still on her lips, and knew her mouth would be stained dark, dark red with the lipstick.
“All you,” Nancy whispered. Her pupils were huge, and she looked dazed. “But let me tell you, that… is the sexiest thing… to have so much power.”
Sarah was still processing the not-unpleasant experience when Nancy tilted her head and bit Sarah’s lip sharply between her canines. She drew blood, and laughed.
“Bitch,” Sarah said, her voice tinged with surprise even though she should have known it was coming, and she slid backwards, putting some distance between herself and Nancy.
“Gotcha,” Nancy said, with a satisfied smirk.
Sarah ran her tongue over her bottom lip, which was warm and tender from Nancy’s teeth.
“Bet you’re not thinking about Chris anymore,” Nancy taunted, and Sarah felt a flash of embarrassment and blushed, because Chris had been the furthest thing from her mind then.
-Three-
After that, none of them performed a spell without sealing it with a kiss. It wasn’t anything serious, anything romantic, except that it was. The coven understood things on a deeper level. Kisses with power held more meaning.
Rochelle was sitting close beside Sarah, feeling Sarah’s fingers braiding that bleached blonde lock into her own hair, and she shuddered at the feeling of power in those hands.
“You shouldn’t worry, you know,” Sarah said. “About what’ll happen to her. She has it coming.” Her hands worked steadily. “And besides, she does have a chance to avoid it.”
Rochelle snorted. “Yeah, when pigs fly,” she said.
“Careful,” Sarah said. “We’re in a pretty powerful state here.” She finished the braid and tied it off, then turned to face Rochelle.
“You’re saying I’m going to make a pig fly?”
“Only if Laura Lizzie pulls her head out of her ass,” Sarah said. She cocked her head, considering. “So, no, I guess not.”
“How do we figure out who deserves it?” Rochelle asked her. She was acutely aware of the one strand of blond hair on her head, and her body was thrumming with a low, pulsing energy that wasn’t her own.
“With Laura Lizzie it’s easy,” Sarah said, matter-of-fact.
“But things aren’t always so black and white,” Rochelle reminded her.
“No.”
It was a good thing Nancy was over with Bonnie on the other side of the room, performing their own spell. Nancy didn’t see things that way. There was the coven, and those who stood in their way. There was all the power of Manon, and those too weak to use it.
“So?” Sarah asked. “Seal it with a kiss?” She smiled, guilelessly.
Rochelle reached up to feel the braided hair. “Do we have to keep this in?” she asked. “It feels…” Tainted. Evil. “…dirty.”
“We’ll do it once with it in,” Sarah decided. “Just to make sure. And then again once it’s out. For luck.”
Rochelle allowed Sarah to kiss her. Sarah’s lips were soft on hers, and tasted like blueberry chapstick, but something still felt off-balance and unwelcome.
“There,” Sarah said, pulling away. “We’ll take it out.”
Something loosened in Rochelle’s chest as soon as Sarah’s fingers had worked the blonde hair out. She knew every last hair was gone but she still raked her fingers through the place it had been, reclaiming herself.
It felt like she could breathe again.
“One more time, for luck?” she asked, and Sarah nodded, closed her eyes, and leaned forward.
This time Rochelle could enjoy the kiss, because every bit of presence in it was hers and Sarah’s, the coven’s and Manon’s. This was the heady burst of power she had been craving, with none of the toxicity that was Laura Lizzie in the mix.
She was so relieved she could have taken it a step further, could have reached under Sarah’s sweater and unhooked her bra, taken it to completion. But she didn’t. That wouldn’t have made Sarah happy, she thought, and maybe not Nancy either. Besides - this spell might be powerful enough already.
And Rochelle didn’t need to confuse things. To complicate things. This was a sisterhood of perfect love and perfect trust. And in that regard, it was perfect.
-Four-
Bonnie sat with her back to Nancy, exposed in the light for the first time.
“Manon, take my scars,” she begged, as Nancy’s hands ran down the damaged tissue. “Manon, take my scars.”
Bonnie’s voice was thick with tears, and Nancy wanted to stop the spell then and there. To take her into her arms and say shhh, shhh. It’s okay.
It wasn’t that Nancy thought the spell would fail. She knew better than that. They had always been powerful, every single one of them, when they worked together. And now, with Sarah to complete the circle…
The possibilities were endless.
But Bonnie sat before her, naked and vulnerable in a way that Nancy had never seen before, and still beautiful. Radiantly beautiful with the inner light of her powers, and no less beautiful on the outside. Crying, choking on her tears, because she couldn’t see it herself.
“Manon, take my scars,” Bonnie chanted.
The magic would work. Their circle was complete. They called every corner in turn, felt the electricity flow through them as Manon heard their call and responded. And now, with the extra attention Nancy was putting into it, she had no doubt that Manon would take Bonnie’s scars. He couldn’t refuse them, not like that.
Nancy had tried not to judge the other girls’ requests. Not one of them had her vision, it was true, but the group didn’t need two visionaries. Nancy could see farther than any of them. Sometimes, in the circle, with perfect love and perfect trust, she knew she could look straight into the stars, and into the parts of Manon that no one else could see, and it filled her and amazed her and moved her.
Still, she had judged her sisters’ spells. How could she not? They all had it in them, to ask for whatever they wanted from the guardians. They had all made the blood offering. They were all willing to do whatever was required of them. And what did they ask for?
Sarah’s was the worst, and Nancy couldn’t let herself think about it too much. Not now, or she might gauge her fingernails into Bonnie’s shoulder, deep into the tissue she was trying to heal. But of all the things to ask for, Chris Hooker. But Sarah would regret it before long, Nancy knew. And Nancy could bide her time.
Rochelle’s wasn’t nearly so bad, but it lacked an ambition and an edge that it could have used. Sure, right now Rochelle and Sarah were working on something to help with that. To give the spell teeth.
But Bonnie’s request. It made Nancy ache in a way she wasn't entirely comfortable with, to know that Bonnie saw herself that way. That this was the first time Nancy had laid eyes on Bonnie’s scars, and it was only because now Bonnie knew they could be taken away. They would be taken away.
Nancy pressed her lips to Bonnie’s shoulder, knowing that Bonnie might not even feel it.
“You’re beautiful,” she whispered into Bonnie’s ear. “You are a queen, a sister of the coven, a disciple of Manon, and all the beauty in the world is yours.”
“It will be,” Bonnie said. Her voice was steadier now, and she turned her head to catch Nancy’s lips in a kiss. To seal it. To strike a deal with Manon.
Nancy kissed her back, and she tried to put everything into that kiss, tried to put your scars are beautiful and you are beautiful too, but Bonnie wouldn’t hear it from her.
-Five-
It took a while for both Bonnie and Rochelle to calm down, after the glamour Sarah had cast. Looking into the mirror, they had each seen their own worst fears, and it wasn’t until the Baileys’ house was far behind them that they were able to stop, to breathe, and to look with their own eyes at each other.
“Wait,” Rochelle said first, panting with the exertion of running to the street as fast as she could go. “Your - your face.”
“I know!” Bonnie half-shrieked, turning on Rochelle, but then she saw Rochelle’s full head of hair, and Rochelle’s hands in it, trying to make sure it was still there.
Bonnie reached up to feel her neck and cheek. They were smooth and perfect to the touch, and she felt her fingers in the nerves, warm and tentative. She brought her hand further down, to where she had carried the scars for most of her life. Still nothing.
“That bitch,” she said savagely, turning, but Rochelle put her hand on Bonnie’s arm.
“No,” she said. “She’s not the one who was the bitch.”
Bonnie’s mouth twisted, but she knew Rochelle was right.
“We should probably both just be glad we’re okay,” Rochelle said, and Bonnie threw a look over her shoulder, back to Sarah’s house.
“I don’t know if Nancy is going to be that lucky,” Rochelle said.
Bonnie laughed, but it wasn’t a happy laugh. “Luck doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she said.
“No, it doesn’t,” Rochelle agreed.
Bonnie reached out then, and took Rochelle’s hand in hers. They were both sweaty-palmed and their hearts beat furiously.
“My house is closer,” Bonnie said. “Spend the night with me?”
“Of course,” Rochelle said. Neither one of them needed to be alone tonight.
They managed to walk the rest of the way back to Bonnie’s house, still hand in hand. At one point something moved in the bushes behind them and Bonnie let out a little scream, clapping her free hand to her mouth, but Rochelle tightened her grip and neither of them ran.
“Nothing’s there,” Rochelle told her. “Nothing that can hurt us.”
“Nancy’s going to be so mad that we left her,” Bonnie whispered. “And Sarah…”
“Do you trust me?” Rochelle asked. Perfect love and perfect trust. The words echoed in her ears, a mockery.
Bonnie nodded slowly.
“It’ll be okay. We’ll be okay,” Rochelle promised, even though she wasn’t sure yet.
They had reached Bonnie’s street by then, but they hesitated to go inside, disheveled and wild-eyed, when Bonnie’s mother might see them and ask where they had been, and what was wrong.
“What if it’s all gone?” Bonnie asked then. “I can’t feel it anymore. Is it because the coven is broken? Can you feel it?” Her voice rose shrilly, and Rochelle squeezed her hand tighter.
“We’ll be okay,” she said. She was aware that she couldn’t feel the magic coursing between their fingers, and she tried to light up the night sky around them with a warm candle glow. Nothing happened.
“It’s gone, isn’t it?” Bonnie asked. Her voice was trembling.
“But we’re still here,” Rochelle reminded her. She put both her arms around Bonnie then, and felt Bonnie stiffen, then relax into it.
“We’re still standing,” Rochelle said. She was telling herself as much as Bonnie, but she leaned forward to give Bonnie a kiss, to seal the words, just in case.
No magic passed between them then. Nothing changed, no burst of lightning or crackle of electricity of flash for Manon smiling at them. But somehow, Rochelle felt a little bit better, and she could tell, when she broke away, that Bonnie did too.
“We’ll go inside,” she said. “We’ll head straight for your room. If your mom stops us, we’ll tell her we had a fight with Sarah, and we don’t want to talk about it. Because that’s true. And I’ll be here, all night, and we’ll be together.”
“Should we try to do anything?” Bonnie asked. “Try to invoke… try to…”
“No,” Rochelle said. “Not even a Ouija board. Tonight we can just ride it out together.” She kept one arm around Bonnie’s waist as they walked forward. It was going to be a long night, and she doubted either one of them would be sleeping, but sleep wasn’t their only option.