The Memory Witch (3 page)

“So, what would my mom have to give you to pay the debt?”

“The potent magic required for the spell means that it would have to be something of great value. Not to mention, it’s been ten years without the balance being restored. I would ask for her to give up probably her most precious thing next to you,” she murmured, “her own mind.” Stella smirked as she made the proclamation. Her advanced age was the only thing stopping me from smacking her across the face.

My mother looked shaken, but rallied for my benefit. “I’ll do it, Quinn. You deserve so much more than I could ever give you. I want you to go to college and be happy,” she urged.

“I doubt she’ll be able to go to college if she has to stick you in a home after I wipe your brain of any coherent thought,” Stella replied with a mirthless smile.

“Mom, are we really going to listen to this nonsense for any longer?” My mom didn’t answer. Instead, she was gazing at Stella with a mixture of reverence and terror on her face. I don’t know if my mother had suddenly become delusional, but she seemed to actually believe Stella’s threat.

Stella rose regally from the loveseat and walked towards me. I rose up as a way to let her know I would not back down to any challenge she decided to throw my way. “Your mother has seen my power first hand. And if you looked inside of yourself, you would see the same thing. Haven’t you ever wondered why you can’t remember?”

“Of course I have. But there’s a logical explanation. If I had seen something so terrible, then I probably went into shock. If I underwent hypnosis or some other kind of therapy, I’d have my memory restored.” I tried to appear as confident as possible while staring her down. I tossed back my dark blond hair for good measure. Stella didn’t look impressed.

“Why haven’t you then? I’m going to guess Bridget wasn’t too keen on the idea.” She had no problem getting into my face even though I had probably four inches on her and at least twenty-five pounds. Stella was barely five feet tall and weighed ninety pounds soaking wet. Yet, I could see her driving fear into the hearts of men three times her size.

“No, she wasn’t,” I conceded. “Well, what’s the big secret? Why did I need my memory erased?”

My mother stopped her weeping and gave me a sober look. “I’ll never tell you.” I felt my mouth open in shock. Before I could come up with a retort, my mother addressed Stella. “No matter what happens, she’s never to know.”

Stella nodded. “The truth will never pass my lips.”

“Mom…” I started.

“No Quinn,” she cut me off firmly. “Don’t go down this road. I swear on your life that this is for the best. You can be happy. Knowing what happened when you were a kid will only ruin that.”

Tears sprang to my eyes. “I need some air.”

I didn’t wait for them to reply. I darted through our back door. I kept running as I headed towards the woods behind our house. I was barreling towards the woods at a sprint. Tears mingled with sweat began to blur my vision as I distanced myself from our house. The forest, normally the canvas of my nightmares, had turned less threatening than my own house.

What was going on? Nothing made sense anymore. Not only was some stranger telling me I had to live with her for a year, but also my mom again refused to be honest about my past. By now, I prepared myself mentally for the truth. I ran all sorts of scenarios through my head over the years. Since my dad was murdered that year, one of the possibilities I considered was maybe I witnessed it. However, my mother insisted that I was with her that day. A neighbor heard gunshots and called the police before we arrived home.

My frantic thoughts made me clumsy. As I neared the edge of the woods, I tripped over a protruding tree root. I was able to break the fall with my hands, but not before my right foot twisted at an unnatural angle. The pain was immediate and shot through my leg. I cried out as I fell to the ground. I let out a string of curses as I crawled over to a fallen log. I sat on the log and examined my right ankle after removing my sock and sneaker. The pain and the swelling made me guess I had a nasty sprain.

I hung my head down and tried to regain control over my emotions. I suddenly hated my close proximity to the woods. The nightmare last night wasn’t the first I’ve had about the terrors that dwelled within the forest. I wondered if the nightmare had been a warning. Perhaps it had foretold Stella’s arrival and her efforts to drag me into the darkness alongside her.

I wished I had the insight to grab my phone before my hasty exit. I could call Tanner and he would come here and make everything okay again. Now, I had to figure out a way to hobble back to the house on my own. There was also the arduous task of dealing with Stella and my mother. Maybe if I remained calm, they would see reason.

A branch snapped close by. I whirled towards the sound and saw Stella in my peripheral vision. Her steps were slow and measured and her gray eyes pierced through me as she walked up to the log. I wiped away my tears and could feel dirt smear across my face. I refused to let this self-proclaimed witch intimidate me.

Stella knelt besides me without addressing me. She had a large satchel slung over her shoulder that she reached into. After exploring the satchel’s contents for a couple of minutes, she pulled out a small tincture. She used the dropper to place a few drops of the liquid in the palms of her hand. Rubbing her palms together, Stella then reached towards my leg. I jerked away.

“Get away from me,” I growled.

Stella didn’t reply. Instead, she placed an iron grip on my injured leg and ran her hands over my ankle. Her words were soft and I strained to hear the mutterings of what I presumed was an imbalanced old woman. My attention was quickly diverted as a warmth transferred from her hands into my ankle. I tried to draw away, but the old woman was much stronger than I ever expected. My ankle tingled and the heat grew to the point of discomfort. Stella stopped her chanting and removed her hands off of my ankle.

I was aghast. “What the hell?” I demanded. Before I could protest any further, I looked down at my leg. The swelling was nonexistent and the skin color had returned to normal. I flexed my ankle and felt none of the throbbing. I stared in wonder before standing up. I walked around for a minute and still felt nothing out of the ordinary. It was as if my fall had never happened.

Stella lifted her body off of the ground and gave me a grim expression. “That was sweet balm. Along with the enchanted words, it helped hasten the healing of your ankle. Most of the spells work in that way. Herbs and chants are combined to give power to the magic.”

I noticed her nose was bleeding. She wiped away the blood with the sleeve of her blue blouse. My gaze was fixated on the rust stain that rested on the sleeve once she pulled it away.

“I paid the debt for you this time,” she said stiffly. “This isn’t how we normally will work though.”

Stella didn’t seem to care that I was shell-shocked. My brain tried to explain away what had just happened, but there was no denying it. This woman was a witch who just fixed my ankle with the touch of her hands. The pain that had knocked the wind out of me minutes earlier was non-existent.

“We leave tomorrow at sunset. My house is in Lima, New York. It will take us over three hours to arrive there. Pack only the essentials,” she instructed. “You won’t have much free time. I have a lot to cover in a year. You’ll leave your car here since I can’t have you taking off during your training.” Her tone was commanding and left no room for argument. I dumbly nodded without the energy to fight.

She seemed pleased by my placidness. “Good. I figured you were sensible enough to not sacrifice your mom. A year of learning your birthright is a small price to pay.” I didn’t respond and she accepted my silence as acquiescence. “Until tomorrow then.”

I watched her back as she maneuvered her way towards my house. My hands were trembling and I felt unsteady on my feet. My heart was heavy as the reality of the situation pushed its way into my consciousness. I was going to be sent to live with a witch for a year. 

I was grateful that Stella was gone by the time I came back through the backdoor off of the kitchen. My mother was still sitting in the couch and staring off into space. Once she heard my noisy entry, she leaped from the couch and ran to greet me.

“Quinn, I’m so sorry. I know you must hate me right now, but I swear on your life that I was only trying to save our family.” She grabbed my hands and begged me to understand with her emerald eyes. I tried not to flinch at her overbearing manner.

I gave her a forced smile. “Mom, I just want to know the truth. It’s my life. I’m not a kid anymore that you need to shelter. I can handle whatever happened to me.”

Before I had finished speaking, my mom was already shaking her head empathetically. “Quinn, I’ll never tell you. I’m sorry and I realize you don’t understand my reasons. But let this go.”

“Mom…” I started.

She cut me off. “No, Quinn. I’ll give you anything else besides that,” she declared. “I’m serious about taking your place. If going to live with Stella for a year is too much to ask of you, we’ll refuse. I have no idea the extent of her power, but we’ll tell her she can do her worse.”

“Mom, that’s not even an option,” I refuted. “Do we have any other options? If your family is magical, can we find someone to help? Maybe do some sort of counter spell?”

“I wish that was the case, but my family hasn’t practiced witchcraft in decades. All of the old books were destroyed years ago,” she sighed.

“So, that’s it? Basically you sold your own daughter to a witch for a year? Do you have any idea how much work I’ve put into getting out of this town and going to college?”

Her eyes filled with shame. “Of course I do, Quinn. Stella wouldn’t take anything else I had to offer. I only did this to protect you.”

“You keeping saying that, but you’re not even telling me what you’re protecting me from.” I paused and gritted my teeth in frustration. “How could you not tell me that she may be coming for me? How could you let me get my hopes up about college?”

“I’m sorry. I never thought…”

I interrupted her. “Betting my future on Stella being dead was thoughtless.”

My mother’s only response was to begin sobbing loudly. Each cry reverberated through my own body and drove home a single point—she would not be helping me get out of this.

I went over to the couch and blew out a long breath. My mother’s bargain with the witch would completely alter the course of my future. Things that were certainties an hour ago—a business degree from Lehigh and a happily ever after with Tanner—were improbable now. My scholarship to Lehigh would likely be revoked and it was doubtful that I’d be able to afford college without it. My mother looked tortured as she sat down next to me. I laid my head against her shoulders and tried to rally for her sake. “It’s only a year, right? I can start college next fall and it will be like this year never happened.”

“Absolutely, sweetheart,” she agreed, tears still in her voice.

“What do you think it will be like there? What does she expect me to do?” I questioned.

“She’ll teach you everything she knows about being a witch. You’ll learn the elements that work with each spell and the invocations that go along with them,” she sighed. Her eyes fluttered close and I imagined she was revisiting the past. “As I said before, my family hasn’t practiced in years. My great-grandmother accidentally killed her husband during a ritual and vowed to never use witchcraft again. She burned her spell books to prevent her heirs from learning any of the enchantments.

“The women of our family knew we had the ability to cast spells, but never the knowledge of how to do so.” My mother’s voice was detached as she described her family’s history. My head was swimming with this newfound knowledge. She had never shown any interest in the occult. Our bookshelves were stuffed with romance novels and medical journals, not spell books and paranormal studies.

Before I could question her further, she continued. “My family’s background gave me the faith that Stella could help us. When I made the deal, she promised that when you would turn eighteen, she would only ask that you stay at her estate for one year. She wanted someone to carry on her work after she died. To be honest, Quinn, she looked ancient then and I figured she wouldn’t live another ten years.”

“You really think I have any supernatural abilities?” I asked doubtfully. “I sprained my ankle when I ran from the house and she healed it with her hands. It seems far-fetched that I could do anything like that.”

I begged for logic to destroy the probability of Stella using magic to heal me. Maybe, I hadn’t injured myself to the extent I believed. Maybe the sweet balm had helped without magic coming into play. As much as I tried to rationalize what had happened, I couldn’t deny that I had felt heat surge through her hands and the pain was instantly diminished.

I’ve never felt like I was anything out of the ordinary. I categorized myself as an average looking girl with a slight memory problem. How could I suddenly be able to manipulate matter in order to heal the wounded?

“Yes, your bloodline promises you’ll be able to do the same thing,” my mom answered hesitantly. “But Quinn, you don’t have to use magic once you leave Stella’s. Magic is a powerful and dangerous thing. It’s easy to be seduced by it and not realize the price that comes with it.”

My curiosity was spiked, but it still didn’t ease the ache of not going away to college. Tanner and Amber popped in my head as I felt myself wallowing. I couldn’t imagine how I could explain this to either of them. “What do I tell Tanner?”

My mother mulled the question for a long moment. She gently began to run her fingers through my straw-colored locks. It was comforting and I decided at that moment to forgive her. Whatever happened ten years ago had obviously caused her a great deal of pain. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the luxury of forgetting the horrific memories. Maybe I should have been grateful for being sheltered from it all.

“We’ll tell him your grandmother is very ill. She has no one else to care for her and not enough money to hire help. You’re going away to stay with her until she gets better and you’re not sure how long it will be,” she elaborated.

I nodded my head and decided that a lie would work best in this situation. There was no way I could tell my boyfriend that I had to leave him for a year to work under the tutelage of a witch. He would probably request that I get committed to the closest psychiatric unit.

I rose from the couch. “I’m going to pack and try to process all of this. I’ll call Tanner too and break the news to him.”

“Quinn, can you hold off from telling him just yet? I know he’ll want to see you, but I’d like to spend the day together. If I’m not going to see you for a year…” my mother choked on the last sentence.

I wanted to be alone, but I had a tendency to put my mother’s needs always ahead of my own. “Of course, Mom. You can help me pack and we could grab some lunch together.”

“I know you’re going to miss Tanner terribly. Why don’t you spend the day with him tomorrow? Maybe you could get together with him and your friends to have a birthday celebration before you leave?” she suggested.

I already missed Tanner. A year apart from him seemed unthinkable. Would he be willing to wait for me? In my heart, I doubted it. Rich and handsome boys like Tanner Black didn’t wait for anyone. Whispered promises in between frantic kisses weren’t likely to hold water now that high school was over.

I agreed with my mom’s plan and we headed upstairs to prepare for my new life.

***

“Is this some sort of joke?”

Tanner’s reaction was predictable. I had dodged a couple of his calls and texts over the course of the day. He figured I was punished and my mother had confiscated my phone. I wished it were as simple as that. My mom’s wrath about staying out for the night seemed like a walk in the park compared to reality.

I lay back in my bed and didn’t respond immediately. I was exhausted physically and mentally. My mother had insisted on non-stop bonding time. We had shopped for hours, although I cringed as she spent probably a week’s salary on clothing and toiletries she thought I would need for my stay. As a birthday present, she took me out to an overpriced restaurant that I knew we couldn’t afford and then to see a movie. I tried to argue with her about spending the money on frivolous things, but I suspected it helped ease her guilt.

As ten o’clock approached, I knew it was time to stop avoiding my boyfriend. Tanner needed to know that the next day would be our last together for a long time. I was hoping I’d be able to visit him while living with Stella, but her tone had led me to believe I was pretty much a prisoner for the next twelve months.

“I know it’s not what we expected, but I don’t have a choice. My grandmother is really sick and there’s no one else to take care of her,” I reiterated.

“What about your mom?” he countered.

“She can’t stop working. We barely have enough money to cover the bills as it is,” I explained.

“What’s wrong with your grandmother?”

“Cancer,” I replied. The lie pained me, but I was uncertain what else to tell him. The diagnosis had the effect of silencing him from asking any more questions about my grandmother’s health status.

“What about college? We were going to be an hour away from each other. Now, you’re going to be hours away and you’re not even sure if we could see each other,” he groaned with frustration.

“She needs round the clock care,” I said lamely. I tightened my grip on the cell phone and willed Tanner to empathize. The thought of spending our last day together arguing filled me with as much apprehension as the though of making the three hour drive to the Chadwick House, Stella’s home in upstate New York.

“This is bullshit, Quinn. If she’s that sick, she should be in a nursing home,” he countered. Tanner continued, “Plus, you told me before your grandparents wanted nothing to do with you and your mother.”

I tried to hold back tears, but I was unsuccessful. I hadn’t anticipated Tanner to be thrilled I was leaving, but I wished he could’ve at least pretended to be supportive. “I don’t want to go. I have to.”

Tanner let out an angry sigh over the phone. He seemed to regain his composure after a minute. “I’m sorry, Quinn. This is hard enough, I’m not trying to make you feel like crap about it.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t expect this either,” I assured him.

“Can you come over? Spend the night with me,” he suggested.

“I can’t. My mom would never let me,” I replied.

“Who cares? She’s shipping you off to the boondocks for a year. Just sneak out,” he urged.

I was tempted. Yet, I doubted Tanner only wanted to spend time with me and cuddle. My promise to him about tomorrow night haunted me for a minute. I had a keen sense Tanner was thinking about the same thing when he had made the offer.

I was too much of a mess to go down that road with him. The thought of sex had me wrecked with anxiety as it was and I didn’t want to worsen my emotional state. “I promised my mom I would stay with her tonight. She feels horrible about me leaving. She said I could spend the day with you tomorrow though.”

“What about our plans? You said tomorrow night…”

I didn’t let him finish and felt my annoyance flare. “Sorry if sleeping with you isn’t the first thing on my mind. I
am
losing my scholarship and getting shipped off for a year.”

“Quinn, this isn’t another excuse to not have sex with me, is it?”

I couldn’t take another minute of Tanner’s self-involvement. I hung up on him and turned off my phone before he had a chance to call me back. Tanner never had a care in the world. He never seemed to grasp the meaning of familial responsibility. His parents gave him everything he wanted which meant he never worked a day in his life. His grades were average, but a hefty endowment from his parents ensured he had his pick of schools. In the course of our relationship, I never resented him for this. Until now.