The 'Old Girls' coven

Tenga followed close behind her mentor as the two ascended the old driveway. She had recently been accepted as an apprentice in witchcraft and was on her way to meet the coven for the first time. In other words she was walking towards her initiation ceremony.

Finally an old manor came into view between the dark shadows of the tall trees that surrounded them. Light spilled out of every window ever so slightly and carved pumpkins lined the porch creating an eerie atmosphere. A bowl of sweets sat on a rickety rocking chair next to the door with a sign reading ‘Take one’. From what Tenga could see, not a single sweet had been taken. Her mentor ignored the sweets and the doorbell as she opened the door and let them both inside.

“We’re going to the basement, follow me and don’t touch anything unless you want to be hexed until next Halloween; Agitha hates it when things are out of place.”

They walked down the passage and her mentor opened a door to the right, as it’s hinges creaked a clock inside the house chimed ten and a black cat darted past the two of them and headed down the stairs. The older woman clicked her tongue in annoyance.

“We just can’t keep him out, can we?”

Tenga stifled a giggle as she walked down the candle lit stairs. They arrived in a spacious room that was designed to look like a sitting room from the eighteen hundreds. Older woman sat around with cups of tea and the centre table had a large spread of finger foods. One of the women at the far end was in the middle of a story.

“...raised my finger and told that man to f...Felicity!” she exclaimed as she noticed the two who had just entered the room. She sprung out of her chair and rushed over to greet them. Tenga’s eyes widened in surprise, she hadn’t expected that kind of movement from someone who looked so frail. The red haired woman turned her attention to Tenga after speaking to Felicity for a bit. “You must be Tenga, I’m Molly dear, it’s so nice to welcome some young blood into this old coven, Fel has told us so much about you.”

The woman ushered her further into the room and sat her down on a chair that was next to her. Her mentor went to get a cup of tea and sat elsewhere to catch up with some of the other ladies.

“Do you want some tea too love?” a woman with an obviously dyed blonde bob asked from across the room.

“I don’t want to trouble you,” Tenga said with a shake of her head.

“Nonsense dear, you’re one of us now. June just make a cup for her,” Molly instructed the blonde as she munched down on a cucumber sandwich.

“Don’t I have to do some sort of initiation spell first?” Tenga asked, unsure of exactly what was planned for the night ahead.

The whole room of witches started to cackle, “Whatever for?” One of the women spoke up. “That’s the problem with you younger generation witches, always trying to complicate things, that’s why we don’t have many new ladies join.”

“Yeah, only old hags,” Felicity interjected which caused another round of cackles to ripple through the room.

“Speak for yourself Fel!” Molly yelled over the laughter as she pointed at the silver blonde.

“I speak for us all,” Felicity shot back, still chuckling along with the rest.

Once everything had calmed down a bit and everyone had finished laughing, Tenga sat with a cup of tea in her hands and listened as the woman gave her a few tips for the upcoming year.

“Don’t buy any eyes of newt from the troll under the bridge, he chews on them and we all know what troll saliva does to a potion.”

A few murmurs of agreement were heard from some of the women. Tenga didn’t know and she doubted she wanted to find out.

“The bat that lives down the street is also to be avoided,” a brown hair, bespectacled woman that Tenga now knew was Agitha went next, “he overcharges for all types of blood all the time. I’m sure he uses that money to bribe the mayor when he goes overboard with his sucking.”

“Nasty people bats are,” Molly added with her nose scrunched up in distaste at the very mention of the vampire race. Tenga knew there was bad blood between the two races due an incident that happened eons ago but had lasted a couple of centuries. Since then witches tried to have as little interaction with the blood suckers as possible.

“The best place to get blood is still the Underground Doctors and Veterinarians society.”

“Felicity is quite right dear, you’ve found yourself a marvellous mentor,” June spoke directly to Tenga.

Tenga was about to respond when a wave of fog spread out from one corner of the room. As quickly as it appeared, it vanished and another greying woman stood in its place. “Sorry I’m late, me dears, I miscalculated the time zones.”

“She’s British?” Tenga turned to Molly flabbergasted upon hearing the new comers accent, “Did she travel all this way just for this?”

“She used a transportation spell...think of it as a type of teleportation.” Molly answered her, “In fact I think it was in the early years of the sixteen hundreds, so I must have been about seventeen...”

“Wait, seventeen? That would make you over four hundred years old!”

“Yes dear, keep up. Anyway, so I was seventeen and...”

“How are you still alive?” Tenga interrupted again.

Molly let out a sigh.

“Don’t be rude Tenga,” Felicity warned, “There are spells that can prolong a life or some that can even make one immortal.”

“Yes,” Molly carried on, “but unfortunately you’re only able to perform them as a senior witch and well, not all of us age as wonderfully as Felicity over there.”

“Charmed but not all of us were as wonderful to begin with,” Felicity jokingly pointed out.

“If I were any younger I’d hex you,” Molly retorted with narrowed eyes but soon broke off into a grin.

“If you were any younger, the hex would just rebound right back onto you.” The room burst out laughing again and Felicity turned to explain the joke to Tenga, “Molly is unable to hex someone into a frog, she’s only just recently managed to turn someone into a newt.”

“It’s because I skipped over all the candles and prop work when I was an apprentice,” Molly defended herself, “I tried to go straight into intermediate work and just cast with word incantations. However as you have heard, it didn’t work out too well for me.”

“Young witches need props to help strengthen their connection to the realm of magic and that helps build their natural aura. Eventually your aura is strong enough that you don’t need the help of worldly things.” June explained.

“What about the cats?” Tenga asked, trying to clarify the superstition.

“They are just less of a handful than men are,” Molly drew a line in front of her with her hand, “That’s the reason, end of story.”

Tenga looked over to Felicity who nodded in agreement.

“At least that clears up the question about why most witches are single,” Tenga said earning a few laughs.

Without realising it midnight had come and passed and the members of the coven started to slowly return home.

“How’d you find this year’s coven meet-up?” Felicity asked Tenga as the two walked back down the driveway.

“I didn’t realise old people were so entertaining,” Tenga responded with a grin.

“Cheeky girl,” Felicity looked at her with a grin and then added with a wink: “Why do you think I visit them every year.”