"Are you sure Thea's plan will work?" Irene asked suspiciously after hearing the entire proposal.

Agnes leaned over a large cauldron nearly double the width of the elderly woman. "My dear, have faith in us old ones."

Behind her Blanche and Ester shrugged their shoulders. The simple action fueling her fear.

"Irene, you've been through far worse. Remember that time we went to the lake practicing that deep water breathing potion. We nearly drowned because we got the ratios wrong," retorted Thea puffing her chest out at the failure of their skills.

"How is putting myself in a potential everlasting slumber, easier?"

"Ho ho ho, because you'll know what's going on the entire time," replied Ester in a giggly voice as she dragged a wooden crate next to the cauldron. The fire beneath crackling and spitting sparks.

Placing a hand on her hip Irene glared at Thea. "I thought I said no out-of-body experiences."

"If you're to be a dead cucumber the rest of your life, why not see the world burn?" Blanche questioned rhetorically while coming forward to join the other elder witches. She carried a tin box that contained bottled jars and tiny wooden boxes.

"Don't scare Irene, she'll never do it that way," Thea commented with words lacking encouragement. Her focus trained on the soon-to-be conducted witchcraft as she moved next to Ester looking into the cauldron.

"Let me run through this again. You plan to make a cursed object with my blood that can put me to sleep. I'll only wake up if Rickter—my true love—remembers why he fell in love with me. And places a kiss atop my lips to remove the spell. Correct?" Irene said waiting for confirmation of the plan.

"Simple, right?" Thea responded gleefully, her gaze still trapped on Irene's impending doom.

She rolled her eyes at Thea's pathetic description of her situation. At least she had the final say; activation of the curse being left to her alone.

"Let us begin," stated Agnes while rubbing her hands together. She bent down to pick up a massive wooden spoon for stirring the contents.

"The temperature is just right," replied Ester after sticking her finger into the watery mix of the cauldron. She brought the wet finger up and stuck it in her mouth.

"A handful of basil, few drops of this and that," Blanche murmured as she dropped different elements into the pot; several items sending a flowery scent through the air.

She pulled out a peculiar gold tinted rock and threw it in. The next item looked similar to a hunk of flesh that gave off a putrid smell. Another item, was some kind of green moss that dissolved when it hit the water. The last, a cup of aqua blue tinted liquid that she poured in slowly, with circular motions.

"The final touch, a pin prick of blood." Blanche pulled out a sleek dagger with a gilded hilt and passed it over the cauldron to Irene.

She grasped it firmly, feeling the leather hilt coarse against her skin. Her free hand gently stroked the thin curved blade, as it gleamed in the dim light. She pressed her thumb down along the edge. A small ball of blood formed on her finger. Moving her hand over the cauldron, she watched her blood dribble into the bubbling pot. The addition caused a fizzing noise and puffs of smoke to appear. The murky green mixture turned into a bright shade of red as Agnes kept stirring.

"Time for the magic words, join hands my witches," Agnes said after she placed her wooden spoon aside. She beckoned everyone to follow suit while grabbing the hands of Ester and Blanche.

"This is exciting," Thea announced with a large smile as she grabbed Irene's hand.

Her rising excitement filled Irene to the brim. Adding the final touches to a spell always felt remarkable. A feeling of bliss that described her perfectly as a witch.