Page 10 of Witchy Woman

“What did you see?” Grandma asks. I don’t like her worried tone.

How do I explain it? I don’t even know what I saw. How I did that.

I shake my head.

What just happened to me?

Chapter 4

Perfectly Fine

Ilock my bedroom door and don’t emerge until the next morning. Every time I close my eyes, the overwhelming memory of the heat threatens to take me under again.

I don’t sleep much.

Bags under my eyes have never been a thing, not onthisface. Not with my perfected skin care routine. But today they are real and I hate it. Is this how normal people feel all the time?

Normal people. Messing around with magic only reminds me how absolutely not normal I am, no matter how much I pretended to be.

I never let people too close, though. My ‘friends’ stopped asking about me after I skipped two outings, and any guys I may have been talking to fell off as well.

What are they doing right now? Probably sleeping off a wicked hangover from a night of bar hopping, flirting, and dancing as if they didn’t have a care in the world.

I don’t miss the people. But I miss pretending I didn’t have a care in the world.

I throw on a chunky, distressed cream sweater and thick fleece-lined leggings with knee-high winter boots, and so muchconcealer I will probably look like a creasy weirdo in a couple hours. Oh well. No one cares what I look like anymore, anyway.

“Hey.” Hazel stops me from leaving the house with a hand on my arm. Noah leans on the banister behind her, shooting me a cautious smile. Noah is all tall, lanky, lean lines. At somewhere over six foot, he makes Hazel look more like a pixie than a witch. He and I still don’t really know each other, despite him apparently being my family now. But from what I’ve gathered, he’s incredibly sweet and incredibly nerdy. “Are you okay?”

I sigh. “I didn’t put on enough concealer, did I?”

She smiles, the worry still poking through. “You look beautiful, as always. But I was there last night. I heard you screaming.”

All I could feel, see, or hear was heat. I had no idea I was screaming until Hazel said it last night.

And the dehydration. I drank about three bottles of water last night.

“I’m fine.” I plaster on an I’m-entirely-normal smile. “It was nothing.”

It was obviously not nothing, and the skeptical glance I’m getting in response proves that she’s aware of it, too. But until I know what happened, there’s nothing I can say to make her, or myself, feel better.

“We’ll talk about it in the car.” Grandma comes up to us with a sympathetic smile on her weathered face. “But we’ll be late if we don’t go now.”

I nod and follow Grandma, leaving Hazel’s worry behind in the creaking house. Leaving both of them behind.

It’s quiet as Grandma and I get in the car, both of us lost to our thoughts.

Hazel, as always, knows exactly how she feels about everything the second it happens. Me? I need a second toprocess shit. And whatever the fuck happened last night is a lot to figure out.

I think I’m scared. I think I’m no longer convinced I’m not crazy. Hearing voices is never a good sign, it can’t be.

“You are processing what happened last night and you don’t have the words to describe it yet. Am I correct?” Grandma asks from the driver’s side, after we’ve been driving for a few minutes.

“Uh...yeah, that’s pretty much it,” I reply. I’d rather she believe that than let her know I’m contemplating my sanity.

She nods. “I would assume so. You’ve probably never had something like that happen to you.”

“What was it?” I ask, knowing she probably won’t have the answer. It happened in my own head, after all.