Crimson

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I had spent all of the following evenings looking for the girl, but nothing. Most likely because she had made it home alright but was scared after the encounter so kept at home. I just wished I could know that for certain.

That evening however, I wouldn't been able to search for her. It was the autumn equinox, Mabon.

The two equinoxes had similar celebrations in the coven. It started when the sun rose with a ceremony, then during the day we would mainly just eat and drink. Then there was another ceremony as the sun set, followed by more eating and drinking. It was always a long and tedious day and if the Priestess didn't demand my presence, I would have skipped it.

Or maybe except for what happened after the evening ceremony.

We would all, one by one, go into a separate room and drink a potion, made by Saida. That potion had the ability to give hints as to what would be happening in your life in the near future. Of course, most of the time it wouldn't show you anything special as there seldomly was much of interest happening in a person's life in the near future. But then there would be those times when there would indeed be something important to come.

Personally, I had never seen anything of much interest after having drunk the potion. The most interesting had been when I had had some about two months before Saida moved in with me. But apart from that, I would almost exclusively find myself just standing in a dark tunnel that I would try to walk through, though never reaching an end.

I didn't hold much hope for this time, but as always I wished that I would manage to find the end of the tunnel and see what was there.

We went in based on seniority, placing me in the middle. Several of the ones that came out before me looked ashened. I didn't think much of it, though judging from that, many wouldn't have that fun of a few months to come.

Then finally, my turn came. I went into the room that was only equipped with a low table on which the caldron with the potion stood as well as a goblet and an athame, and several cushions to make it comfortable to kneel by the table.

The walls though, was clad in portraits of various witches that had been in the coven. My mother, Mary Evermore, was among them. She had the same black hair as me and rounded nose. Other than that though, we didn't have any similarities. Always when I saw that portrait, I wished that I had any picture of my father. But the coven barely even had any information on him. The only answers I had gotten when asking about him was that he had been a human and that his name had been John. Then I did of course have my memories of him, but they were few and, since I had been so young when they had died, not very clear.

I sat down in a tailor's position on the cushions. Filled the goblet with the potion, using a ladle. Then made a tiny cut on my finger, producing a few drops of blood that fell into the potion. I swirled the goblet a bit, made the blood mix with the rest, before drinking its content. I closed my eyes and let the vision, I could feel the potion pulling me towards, take me.

As usual I was in the dark tunnel. It was made of stone, though how I knew that I didn't know as all things around me was completely black. Even in the dreamlike state the potion caused, I let out a sigh of disappointment. I was on my way to just sit my butt on the tunnel's floor and wait the vision out, when something different happened.

I wasn't moving, but kept completely still. The tunnel around me however, was. The walls flashed by on both sides of me, moved me further and further along the tunnel than I had ever gone before. Moved me so far that I saw a faint light before coming to a halt.

Excitement filled me and I ran towards the light. I was worried that it would remain out of reach, but it grew bigger and bigger until finally I saw the edge of the tunnel.

I stopped. If I took one more step forward, I would go into the light and leave the darkness behind. It was what I had wanted to do for so long, but standing there with the possibility before me, I hesitated. What would be on the other side? What if it was something worse? The dark tunnel wasn't exactly nice, but I was safe there. I had no idea what would come if I stepped into the light.

I pushed my worries aside. I had waited for this for so long. Now was not the time to let stupid anxiety lead the way. I took one last deep breath and stepped forward.

Colors exploded, blinding me. There was blue and green and brown and red, all intertwining, all surrounding me. I rubbed my eyes to get a better look, but when I opened them again, I stared out into the room inside the coven's headquarters.

Well, that hadn't made much sense.

I sighed. It was usually like that from what I had heard from the others. Almost like that you wouldn't know what the vision actually meant until what it told of had come to pass.

I got up and out. I caught Saida's eyes and shrugged at her, before leaving the room with the ones that still waited for their turn and instead went to a room next to it where everyone that had already had their vision was. They drank wine and talked amongst each other. I took a glass and sat in a corner, waited for Saida to come out.

After about half an hour Saida came and went straight up to me. I could see excitement on her face which made me certain she had also seen something that meant changes were coming.

"What did you see?" she asked and took a seat next to mine.

"I got out of the tunnel, but there was just a bunch of colors on the other side. You?" I answered, feeling more excited about hearing what she had seen and try to make sense of that.

"What colors?" she asked.

"Blue, green, brown, and red. Doesn't really make sense. So your turn."

She bit her lip and shook her head. "Well, I have no idea what it might mean, but I was on a battlefield. By the looks of it a medieval battlefield. One side had roses as their emblems and the other a unicorn on white and blue cheekers. The unicorn side won."

I opened my mouth to answer, when Kendra stomped up to us.

"Saida, make sure to be more careful when you make the potion next time. You must have done something wrong," Kendra said with annoyance.

"What do you mean?" Saida asked and looked taken aback. I was as well. The potion had seemed to work as well as ever.

"It didn't work. Several of us just saw darkness. I understand that we can't always do everything right, but this is something important so make sure to take more care next time." On the surface Kendra's words seemed understanding, but the venom in her voice made it clear she was anything but.

"It worked perfectly fine," I butted in. "You probably just won't have anything special happening to you during the coming month."

"And do you really think it's possible for so many of us to have absolutely nothing happening?" Kendra spat back.

I shrugged. "The potion definitely worked, so I guess so. Or you all will have the same thing happening to you."

Kendra looked like she was about to argue more, but the Priestess came up and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"That's enough, Kendra. Leave it be," she said and Kendra huffed before turning to leave. The Priestess gave me and Saida a searching look before doing the same.

"What's their problem?" I said and rolled my eyes, before turning to Saida to together try to figure out what our visions had meant.