Chapter 2

That night, after I told my mom about the mysterious boy, she and I went around and put up a protection spell and wards to keep unwanted company off the property. Thankfully, we didn’t find anything out of place and when we made our way back inside, Dad was waiting for us with tea and snacks.

“I know that the property is big, so I thought you would need some fuel to get some energy back as you ground yourselves,” he said with a smile as he handed us the mugs.

We said thank you and mom gave him a kiss on the cheek as he left to go unpack his study. We drank our tea and ate our snacks and felt our energy slowly come back. Dad always made us tea after we did big spells. He may not be an actual witch, but in my opinion, he was just as much of a witch as I was. A thought suddenly occurred to me as I ate the last of my snack.

“Mom, do you think our ancestors' journals are hidden somewhere in the house?” I asked.

She paused, thinking for a moment. “I honestly couldn’t say. It wouldn’t surprise me though. There are a lot of nooks and crannies, and an occasional hidden room or two throughout the house, so maybe you can go try to find them and see what's in them.”

I shrugged in response. Soon after, I said goodnight to my parents before going back to my room. Well, that's what I planned to do. I had just made my way up the stairs when I saw someone down the hall. It couldn’t have been my parents as I just left them downstairs. The figure I saw wasn’t doing anything besides standing there watching me. It was at this time I wished I’d remembered to grab my bandanna from the window before Mom and I went to do the spell. I would just have to confront it and hope for the best. I slowly approached the figure and the closer I got, the clearer it became. I saw a girl a few years older than me with red hair in 1600s-era clothing, and I recognized her immediately.

“Amelia?” I asked.

She simply pointed at the wall. I came closer to see what she was pointing at, but by the time I got to where she was standing, she was gone. I looked at the wall she was pointing at and met eye to eye with an old portrait or a young red-headed girl with a plaque that said, ‘Amelia Morgan 1692.’ I stood there confused as I examined the painting further. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders in curly waves. She wore a beautiful pink dress and a choker made of what looked like a red ribbon with a dark red jewel in the middle of it. For some reason, I was drawn to the choker. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Suddenly, I heard a whisper of a voice in my ear saying:

“Follow me.”

I turned around just in time to see the same figure again, but at the base of the stairs going up to the third floor of the house. Okay, this was weird. I had no protection with me and some spirit that resembled my late ancestor was trying to get me to follow it to a part of the house I had yet to explore. What should I do? It didn’t feel menacing or evil, but should I trust it?

“Follow me,” it said again with more emphasis.

Well, I guess I was following it and I’d deal with the consequences later. I started walking over to her before I lost my confidence. I followed her up the stairs down a few hallways before we made it to a little room that I’m sure I would not have been able to find on my own, at least not this quickly. It was a quaint little room probably used for storage all those years ago, dust covered the shelves that occupied the edges of the room. Little empty bottles and jars still sat in spaces that they were probably put 100 years ago. Amelia went over to an empty wall and pointed, just as she did with the painting. I couldn’t help wondering what she was leading me to. What exactly she wanted me to find. The wall she was pointing to had nothing on it, no shelves, nothing.

“Okay, what do you want me to do?” I asked, looking at the wall but when I looked back up, she was gone. This time for good.

Well thanks for the instructions, Amelia, I thought. Now, what about this wall did she want me to figure out? I kneeled down by the wall to get a closer look. I noticed a pentacle engraved on the bottom panel—a star within a circle—to indicate the connection of the five elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. It was a magical symbol used for protection. Something magical went on with this wall. Standing up a thought occurred to me, could something be behind it? Tentatively, I raised my hand and started knocking on the wood looking for any hollow points.

Part of me was surprised when my hunch was right. I heard the hollow echo sound pretty much everywhere on this wall, but how was I going to get behind it? Mom would kill me if I damaged it and I honestly didn’t know if Amelia would leave me alone if I didn’t figure out what she wanted from me. I guess now was as good a time as any to work on my manifestation. I held my hand out toward the wall and started to envision it turning into a door. I imagined a doorknob appearing along with hinges and the lock mechanisms. When I opened my eyes to look, I was met with a wall-looking door.

Not exactly what I was hoping for, but it was better than nothing. Honestly as long as it worked that was good enough for me. Now the question was, did it open? Taking a calming breath, trying not to think about how there could be a rotting dead body on the other side of this, I reached out and carefully turned the knob until I heard a click. Then before I chickened out, I swung open the door as fast as I could. I looked inside and thankfully there was no dead body, instead I found a small chest. It was a beautiful dark brown wood with gorgeous gold details and had a pentacle carved into the lid. I don’t know why but I felt the undeniable urge to take it with me.

Carefully I lifted the box to inspect it further and noticed there were sigils all over the bottom of it. Many of them I recognized from Amelia’s journal but there were some I had never seen before. I took the box and slowly made my way back to my room, deciding It’d be better to check it out in there where I had wards up in case Amelia decided to show up again. If that was in fact Amelia. So, I carefully made my way back to my room and quickly shut the door, before making my way to the window seat. I examined the sigils on the box and tried to recall where I had seen some of them before. It took a moment or two for it to hit me, and I got up and grabbed Amelia’s journal; flipping through to a page filled with a bunch of sigils she had created. Most were normal everyday sigils for protection, and to keep it hidden. But others were a bit more unique and extreme, there was one that made it to where an unwanted person could not touch this box without getting burned.

This alone was enough to make me extremely weary of what could be in this box. However, why would Amelia lead me to the box if she didn’t want me to open it? It was pretty late, and I should probably sleep on the idea and wait till the morning. Maybe even talk to my mom about it. So, I put the little box in the top drawer of my bedside table and tried to drift off into sleep. Sleep didn’t come easy however, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. I looked around my room and out my windows but found nothing. I’m probably just nervous to fall asleep after the dream I had last night. I thought to myself for a moment and decided that must be it, and that I was being ridiculous.

Trying to shake off the anxiety I was feeling I climbed back into bed and waited for sleep to wash over me and hope I had a normal dream. It wasn’t long once I relaxed that sleep found me, and this time no dreams followed. It was a dreamless sleep the second night in the new house, an uneventful night. When I woke up the next day however, a whole new batch of weirdness began. I heard the birds outside first, then I smelled the food cooking in the kitchen, afterward I heard a rustling next to my head.

“Mom, I’ll be right down in a minute,” I mumbled flipping onto my back as I tried to wake up fully.

When I spoke up, the rustling stopped immediately. Confused, I slowly sat up and opened my eyes to see what was going on, only to be met with an empty room. Shrugging my shoulders, I turned to my bedside table to grab my phone, and to my surprise I found Amelia’s box sitting upon the table next to my phone.

“That’s weird,” I said to myself. “I could have sworn I put this in the drawer.”

Against my better judgement I picked it up, and suddenly I got a flash image of Amelia rushing to hide the box. I could hear voices echoing after her as she ran up the stairs, and her panicked breathing as she rounded the corner and rushed into the first room she deemed safe. Then just as sudden as it happened, it was over. I immediately dropped the box and all but ran downstairs to the kitchen where my parents were quietly making breakfast.

“Hey, honey, you’re just in time. The food just got done cooking,” my mom said without looking up from the pan.

“Mom,” I said breathlessly.

She must have heard the distress in my voice because she quickly made her way to my side. Wordlessly, she followed me up to my room. I could feel her worried and questioning gaze on my back the entire time. When we made it to my room, I let mom go in first while I followed closely behind. I watched as she took a quick glance around the room before her eyes landed on the small little box that still sat on top of my bed.

“Wynter, where did you get that?” she asked, making her way over to my bed.

“Amelia took me to it last night. She wants me to open it,” I explained. “I put it in my bedside table drawer last night, and when I woke up it was sitting next to my phone.”

“Hold on, sweetie. You said Amelia took you to this box?”

I nodded in response. “I think I saw her ghost. She took me to some old closet and showed me where the box was. I haven’t opened it. I was waiting till I talked to you.”

“That was probably a good decision. Tell me everything that happened.”

I told her everything from the weird dream I had the first night to the vision I got when we touched the box. ‘We’ve only been in this house for two days. Why is everything already so crazy?’ I thought to myself. I watched as my mom sat on my bed processing everything I just told her. It looked like she was just as confused as I was. I couldn’t help wondering why me? Why was Amelia showing herself to me? Why not Mom, she was a much more experienced witch than I was.

“Open the box,” Mom said suddenly.

“What?”

“If Amelia wants you to have this, then who are we to deny her? Wynter, this box has been missing since Amelia was captured.” She explained, “When our family came back our ancestors spent lifetimes trying to track down everything Amelia hid before they got to her, and besides her grimoires, this box was the only thing left to find.”

“But I didn’t find it.”

“No, Amelia gave it to you. Amelia chose you, so open the box. I’ll be right here with you.” she said, handing me the box with a comforting smile.

I shakily take it from her hands and stare at it for a moment or two before slowly lifting the lid. Inside was the choker Amelia had been wearing in her portrait. Red ribbon with a dark red jewel in the middle of it, only the ribbon had decayed over the years and wouldn’t be usable. Although the jewel remained the same gorgeous sparkling dark red as it has probably always been. I carefully placed the jewel in my hand and lifted it to the light. I was easily mesmerized by it. For some unknown reason holding this jewel brought me great comfort.

“The ribbon is no good, but I think I have a chain somewhere in my boxes. I’ll look for it and give it to you when I find it.” My mom said, startling me.

“You think I should wear it?” I asked.

“Maybe, if it feels right. From the stories my Grandpa told me, the only time Amelia took that off was before the townspeople came for her.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, nonetheless that’s a family heirloom and we don't want to lose it,” she said, placing a hand on my shoulder as she left.

Deciding it was best to leave it be for now, I put the jewel back inside the box and placed it back in the drawer. I followed mom back downstairs, so I could eat breakfast before I resumed unpacking my things. I needed to finish unpacking my stuff quickly, considering that my first day of school was in two days. Thankfully the upstairs bathroom had plenty of room for my stuff, so time flew by rather fast. After I was done with my bathroom, I went downstairs once more to see if either of my parents wanted my help. I had to search a little before I was able to find them, but when I did, I found them in what would be Mom’s study.

It was located more towards the front of the house with bookshelves all around the room. Dad was putting her desk together whilst mom was putting all her books on the walls.

“Hey mom, do you need some help?” I asked as I made my way into the room.

“Did you finish your room?” My dad asked in response.

I nodded and quickly grabbed some of the family grimoires from a nearby box. Grimoires have been passed down through our family for generations. The only grimoires we haven’t been able to find were Amelia’s. According to mom the family always believed that she hid them somewhere in the house, but no one had been able to find them. The current theory is that maybe she protected them with a spell. Who knows, maybe Amelia will show us where they’re hidden. The grimoires we have date back to Amelia’s little sister, Avery, telling us about the Morgan family’s life after they fled. They found refuge in a village two towns over.

It was there that they replenished their strength and lived for some years to come. Almost a decade after the trials ended, they made their way back and reclaimed the estate and the rest of the Morgan property. Afterwards they kept to themselves and avoided the rest of the townspeople. I know you’re probably wondering why they would risk coming back so soon. Well according to Avery it was because the coven didn’t want to risk losing connection to the magic that had soaked into their lands from all the past generations of Morgan witches. They decided that they would return and magically fortify themselves against the town. Over the years they let down their defenses and were able to find love with some brave souls. But neither the town, nor the coven forgot that fateful night.