***Veronica***

I am cursed. An ordinary curse, I suppose as far as witchcraft goes. The second I was born, I was spat on by the coven mother and my curse was set. I am the punishment of my mother who tried to run and to keep me from the coven. I was born and she was killed.

How do I know? The sisters tell me the story over and over of how I was cursed while my mother cried and begged for pity. Then they tell me how she was killed. There is nothing I hate more in the world than the sisters in the coven. My time is approaching and fate will not be denied or avoided.

I am cursed to be witch. If my mother had escaped, perhaps I could have lived as a normal human. But more than that, I am destined to be a Shadow Hex, the most feared and powerful of witches. There haven't been any in over a hundred years. A two-fold fate; witch and Shadow Hex. My future is to take the head of the coven one day soon and to unite the sisters in a reign of power and fire that the world of witches has never seen. First, I must perform the ritual of transformation. I could already be a coven witch, one of the sisters, but up till now I have resisted. The second I use the black arts or willingly kill another, my soul is lost. If I perform the transformation ritual, I will be both.

Vessa shoves me when we return to the house. "Bring the girl. We must be certain he is the one."

There is a sad litany of little girls who have stayed behind the rusting bars in the house cellar. It seems they have always been the same - tear streaked faces, bony arms and gaunt cheeks. They have always reached out their hands when I would come with their food and water.

"Please let me out. I'll be good. I won't tell anyone."

Their words have always been the same and my heart has always been a cold, pitted stone towards them. I couldn't save them any more than I could save myself.

And I hated them, too, for reminding me.

The little girl the sisters are holding captive now is different than those in the past. She doesn't ask for me to let her out. She asks me to play with her.

When I go down to fetch her from her prison, I place my heart where none can touch it. It is a hard, painful thing to do.

"You can be the brown-haired doll with brown eyes, because she's like you. I'll be the blond one. You can start if you want," she says, handing me the sorry excuse for a plaything. The old Barbie has half of her hair pulled out and a missing arm. The plastic doll with dirty hair that might be blond is stained by countless tears and years of mold. I don't even know how to play dolls. I stare at the girl mutely until the doll slips from my hand. The door above us opens.

"Now, Veronica."

"I won't do it."

Vessa hisses in anger. Valda, the youngest sister comes down the stairs, smirking. "Vivian has gotten her cat-o'-nine-tails out of the box. You have a few more moments to reconsider."

She unlocked the door and led the child to the altar room in the darkest part of the cellar. The little girl held up her ragged doll at me as the shadows swallowed her. I can't even follow to keep her company, I'm so afraid of the shadows. I know what evil and cruel acts thrive in them. Me - a Shadow Hex, afraid of the dark.

Vessa rips into my hair when she sees I have no intention of participating in their ceremony tonight. "I don't believe you are destined for anything. You will never be one of us and you will never take up a mantle of power. When Vivian sees how wrong she is, she will let me eat your liver while you watch."

She is too strong and drags me to the altar room. I kneel on the floor, refusing to wield the knife Vivian thrusts at me, closing my eyes and heart to the hideous acts the sisters will perform on the girl. The candles are all about the room and the flames shed light on blackened walls and dried gore. Vivian flicks her whip and brings it crashing down on my back. It tears through my thin dress and skin as easy as paper. Between my own screams and pain, I don't hear the little girl's voice again until the sisters are done.

The moment after she died, I heard her whisper in my ear, "Will you play with me?"

I curl into a pain riddled ball and dry my tears with my hatred.

Vivian, Vessa and Valda invoke the girl's spirit, trapping it between the world of the living and the world beyond. They have questions.

"Veronica spoke with a boy today, is he the one to bring about her fate? Will his death transform her?" Vivian asks the girl's dead body.

"The boy she spoke with today will lead her to her path. Veronica will have no choice but to walk upon it." It is the girl and it is not the girl who spoke. Spirits of many walks of life and time can speak through her when the sisters used this spell.

"Are you certain of her powers? Veronica will be the next Shadow Hex?"

"She will be the only Shadow Hex of two hundred years. She will be one with the shadows, taking their form, taking her form from them, using the power as she desires."

"How can this weakling be destined to such power? Can't we take it from her and divide it among ourselves?" Valda asks. She has always been jealous of my destiny.

"It is hers and hers alone. She will take the head of the coven. She will unite the sisters in a reign of power and flame of pure magic no coven has ever known. She will become the Shadow Hex and stay no more among the living."

The girl sighs with a thousand voices. The spell's power is coming to an end.

"Pour her blood over the stone, I want to keep this one a while longer," Vivian says.

Despite the scorching lash cuts in my back, I use the altar to help me stand. "Let her go, you've done enough to her. Let her have peace now."

Vessa slaps me; her nails rake across my cheek. The poison from them worms into my veins.

"I am head of this coven until you take it from me," Vivian says. She motions to Valda to complete the binding spell. Blood flows from the bowl onto a clear crystal.

Once again I have to swallow my anger and stand helpless to watch a soul suffering. The girl's spirit lights up the pendant in pale blue. She will be forced to exist in restless torment until Vivian decides to release her.

My legs lose their strength and I fall. As the sisters leave me bleeding on the floor, Vivian presents me with my final choice.

"Either you accept to sacrifice that boy according to our rituals or we will draw out his death with torture you cannot imagine. And then your death will make his look easy and quick. Think carefully. You only have a few more days."

The poison pulls me under.