Chapter 9

When we got to Kane’s house, me and Penelope gasped to see that it was 3 stories. Kane looked embarrassed. “Yeah, my mom is a doctor. Healing is her calling. She also does side-job healings.” He shrugged embarrassedly.

We found Melanie at the house, and I wondered if Melanie and Kane were related somehow, or if they’d had a history. I brushed my jealousy off.

Kane gave me and Pen a tour, which made me realize Melanie had been here plenty of times. The thought brought the jealousy to the front of my mind again.

He showed us the kitchen. There was a wooden sign stating, “we are Pagans, don’t try to convert us or you’ll fail.” There was also some drying herbs near the windows.

In the living room there were dragon statues, a household altar that had a brown cloth with Fall colors for the season; red, yellow, and brown candles, leaves, and crystals. There was a big Pentagram, or pentacle, or whatever it’s called, on the wall made out of branches, twigs, and leaves. There was a brick fireplace in the center of everything, and a tree that took up one whole corner. I noticed the scent that I had smelled when I had come into the room was from the incense sticks burning, and there were Chinese, or was it Japanese, fans on the wall. There was a small gurgling fountain made of stones and crystals on the other wall. It looked like purity incarnated.

Then a thought hit me. It was all the elements represented!

As we walked up the stairs, he quieted us, saying his mom was doing a deep meditation.

He led us to his room; it was beautiful! The walls were painted black, and it was accented with silver swirls. I realized it was the same print of his bag. Was this his theme?

In the center of his large room was an altar. This one was covered in a black crushed velvet cloth. The altar had a white pillar candle on the left corner, and a black candle on the right. They were the tallest candles, and were in a silver intricate candle holder.

In the middle of the altar was a metal pentagram… or was it pentacle? I was still confused about that. There was bits of wax coated to it, it looked like he had tried to clean it off, but some wax still stuck on. There were four votive candles; green, yellow, red, and blue. That must represent the elements I had learned about; earth, air, fire, and water.

There was also a bowl of salt, a bowl of water, and a thing that looked like a cauldron. Maybe it was a cauldron, he was a witch after all. There was a carved stick with tiny crystals glued into it. It was engraved with something that reminded me of letters, but they were no letters I’d ever seen before. It also had a crystal glued to the tip, a clear quartz crystal if I remembered correctly. The base had some copper wiring coiled around it.

“So this is where we will be doing the healing ritual,” Kane said as Melanie walked in and closed the door. “First, I will teach you to cast a circle. We have four people, so it will work perfectly.” He picked up the stick. “This, of course, is a wand. The crystals of my choice are on the side of it to make it mine. The writing on it is my Wiccan name in runes so people know who’s it is. The crystal tip is so the energy can be stored there, and the coiled copper wiring is so the energy can transfer from my hand to the wand easier.” It was all fascinating, and I instantly wanted a wand of my own.

“Now everyone form a circle. Me and Melanie are fire and earth elements. You, Chloe, can be water, and Penelope, you can be air. Here,” he moved us so that we were in the corresponding places. “Now I will call earth first, because that is how I was taught and how I’ve always done it, but there are different ways that people can do it. We’ll move deosil, or clockwise. So Penelope, you do it after me and I’ll tell you what to say. And then Melanie goes after you. And then Chloe, you go after Melanie and I’ll tell you what to say. All right? Is everyone straight?” Kane asked.

“No,” Melanie said. Kane rolled his eyes, and I realized that Melanie was a lesbian, or at least not completely straight.

“Ok,” he lit the green candle, then took a regal stance, holding the wand strongly above his head with both hands. “Element of earth, direction of north, I call upon you to grant us your powers of strength and stability to use in this rite tonight. As I will it, so mote it be!” Then he took a meditating stance, closing his eyes, and concentrating. Then I felt my heartbeat. Like, it was already beating, but I felt it. Then I felt each single hair on my head. He was truly invoking earth. He opened his eyes, but the feeling was still there, like earth itself was with us in the ritual.

Then he leaned over to Penelope to tell her what to say. She lit the candle and then put her arms up, hesitantly at first, but then with eagerness. Her voice was shaky, but strong at the same time. “Element of air, direction of east, grant us your powers of intelligence and rational thought to use in this rite tonight. As I will it, so mote it be!” She also took up a meditative stance, and closed her eyes, concentrating. There was a little air, as if the window was open, but the only window I could see was far from us, and not even open. It had to be a vent. Then I realized, no, not a vent, but the element being invoked.

Next it was Melanie’s turn, and after that it would be me. I felt nervous, as if I had to do a speech in front of the class. But I focused on Melanie’s words. “I call upon thee, you who illuminate the moon. Oh Great Father Sun, set upon us your warmth of light in this rite tonight. Pour forth your divine spark, that your children may heal from it’s cleansing energy. As I will it, so mote it be!” She did the meditation thing, and I felt warmth and energy.

“Beautiful as ever, Fursnitalah.” Kane said, and I felt a spark of jealousy. But I pushed it down before it could ruin the ritual. “Ok, now Chloe, I want you to say-”

“No, I have my own invocation.” I said. He seemed baffled, then amazed and awed. He bowed his head as if I were the Goddess.

I had no idea where that had come from, or the words that came from my mouth. I lit the candle. “I call upon the water of life, the blood of the Goddess, the fluids of Her womb. I ask you to flow through each one of us and heal our minds and souls. We are open to the flood of life and healing, and allow the water of life to flow through us. Cleanse away our old and bring forth our new. As I will it, so mote it be.”

Everyone seemed to be crying, though whether it was from tears or invoking the element, I had no idea.

Kane was visibly shaken, and it was the first time I’d ever heard his voice rattle like that before. “The circle is cast, we are between worlds. Magick that is held here, secrets that are told here, will be between us in this circle, forevermore.”

“As we will it, so mote it be.” Melanie declared.

“It is time to meditate now.” Kane said. He put on binaural music and physically relaxed. Me, Pen, and Melanie did the same. I was lost in the darkness, then a blue pulsing light flashed in the center. It got bigger and brighter with each beat, and it took over my body so I couldn’t feel anything anymore.

I wasn’t physical anymore. I was floating. In the blue light, I was floating; higher, higher. I saw flashes of green, white, and yellow. I felt happy… joyful. I had no thoughts, no memories. I was purely spirit. I saw a spark of clear purple in the distance, as I floated, it drew closer. Then I noticed a thread of light that connected me to the orb. It shocked me out of my meditation, because I knew what it meant.

But when I came out of that world and into the physical, I had no memory of what that had meant. I remembered everything else, but I had not learned everything that my spirit had learned. I looked up at Kane next to me. He was staring at me, wide eyes, gaping mouth; the face of a person who was shocked beyond belief and knew. D****t, what did it mean?

“Alright everyone.” Kane said, getting up. “Now let’s do a body cleansing, now that the mind is cleansed and strong.”

Kane pulled out a drawer from the altar and took out a bundle of… herbs. He lit it with a match and blew it, waving it in the air. Then he came over to me and let the smoke pour all over my body. It felt so spiritual, so right, like what I had spoke in the invoking ritual. I had that joyous feeling again.

Then he left, and began with Penelope. She smiled brightly, but then coughed as she breathed in the smoke. Kane laughed. Lastly he cleansed Melanie, and then Melanie cleansed Kane.

“We’re all cleansed deeply. Now let’s open the circle.” He told me what to say to start it off. “Water I salute you. Blessed be.” I said.

“Fire I salute you, blessed be,” Melanie’s voice was commanding.

“Air I salute you, blessed be,” Penelope’s voice was timid.

“Earth I salute you. Blessed be.” Was Kane’s deep, sexy...woah, where is this going? Weird.

Kane glanced at me as if he were reading my thoughts.

“The circle is open, but never broken.”

“All right, the ritual is done. Let’s go down to eat.” Kane suggested. As he said eat, my stomach began to growl. Everyone looked at me, then giggled. Then Penelope groaned, “Oh, I’m hungry too. You better have a whole whale downstairs; I’m that hungry.” Kane and Melanie nodded. “After you do some sort of energy release, like a ritual like that, you get hungry. We used up all our energy, and now we need to replenish.” We all ran downstairs to eat. I finally got to meet Kane’s mom. She was downstairs getting something to eat herself, and introduced herself when we came down.

“I’m Laura. You must be Chloe and Penelope,” Laura said. I noticed how she didn’t introduce herself to Melanie, which meant they knew each other. That jealousy spiked up again. We held out our hands to shake Laura’s, and she took them but didn’t shake. She pulled us into a welcoming hug, one by one, and kissed each side of our face in a french manner.

Kane was embarrassed at how his mom was acting, but I thought it was nice and super cool to have a mom like her. “Oh, Melanie, nice to see you.” Laura said, giving a familiar hug.

“Well, hello to you too mother.” Kane said sarcastically.

“Hello my beloved son.” Laura greeted, kissing him on the forehead right between the brows. “So what were you four doing upstairs?” Laura asked, but she didn’t sound nervous, just curious.

“A healing ritual for Chloe. She was…” He looked at me for confirmation that he was allowed to tell her. I nodded. “She was...raped.” Kane finished. “She wanted to do a curse on him, because of course she’s not over it, and the God channeled through me to speak to her.”

Laura gasped. “Oh, you should’ve told me,” she said.

“Mom, you were in deep meditation. I didn’t want to disturb you.” Kane explained. “Yeah, but...ok. Chloe, would you like to speak with me in the other room?” Laura asked.

“Um, sure.” I said.

Laura led me to her own room, which was painted purple with black and stainless steel furniture. The huge bed took up one half of the room, and the altar took up another quarter of the room. Her bed was purple, a little darker than the walls, and it had the mystical feel of one of Melanie’s shirts. It had a fairy sitting on a crescent silver moon. She pulled down a blanket, or something that looked like a blanket, but had one of those stars within a circle things, spread it out on the floor, and told me to sit.

We sat Indian style, facing each other. She started her speech about whatever she had brought me in here for.

“I gave birth to Kane at the age of 16. He was a birthday present to me from the Goddess; he was born 3 days before my 17th birthday. He was the best thing that ever happened to me, I was joyful throughout my pregnancy. People were confused with my reaction; they wanted me to have an abortion, especially my parents. But even at that time in my life, I didn’t believe in abortion. To me, abortion is worse than murder. For one, it’s a baby. For two, they haven’t even experienced life yet. It’s not our decision to kill the baby inside of us. If it is the Goddess’s will for the baby to reincarnate again, she will give us a miscarriage.”

“Do you know why they wanted me to have an abortion?” Laura asked.

I shook my head. What did this have to do with what we were talking about in the kitchen? But I answered anyway. “I guess it’s because they thought you couldn’t take care of him, with you being a young teen.”

She shook her head. “That thought might’ve been in their head, but the slightest of all. No. That’s not the reason. I know that what I am about to say will hurt you, make you feel uncomfortable, make you feel a lot of things. But in my heart I know you need to hear this. I was raped. That is who Kane’s mortal father is, a rapist. But I nor Kane acknowledge him as his true father. The Great God is his father, the consort of the Goddess. And that’s our theory of why he was gifted with being the vessel of the God. Why am I saying this? Because you need to know that everything happens for a reason, even if we don’t want to see or acknowledge it. I thank the Goddess every day that I was wise enough to see it.”

“You might not have conceived a baby, that might not be your lesson. But there is a lesson in everything. It is not for me to say what your lesson is, or will be. Only you and the Goddess can figure that out. And that, in itself, is another lesson. You need to figure things out yourself to understand who you truly are. If you get things handed to you, you will be a product of everyone else. You won’t be your true self.”

“Now, let’s get away from this dark subject. So, are you in love with my son?” she asked.

I gasped. How...why...oh Goddess. If I say no, she will be offended. If I say yes, she will be protective, and it might not be true. I didn’t even know, and I voiced that aloud.

“You will know come Beltane.” She smiled. “I already know Kane is in love with you. Not to make you uncomfortable or anything.” She said with a smile.

“Oh…” Was all I said.

Author's Note

Re-uploading all chapters