six nearly witches

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         EVEN THOUGH EVANORA GAVE HILLTOWN A LOT OF SHIT, THE HALLOWEENTOWN WAS GROWING ON HER. Not that she would ever admit that aloud in the presence of Colleen, who would no doubt then gloat and act all smug because the Elders always know best and all that nonsense, but it wasn't even the town. No, Hilltown was still a Halloweentown, but the people there, well, they weren't just ghouls and goblins.

They most definitely were not the worst, unless you counted Marisol Vera, and her friends were part of the best the town had to offer. They didn't seem like they belonged there, in this small town, because Tommy had an eye for art in nature and could capture it perfectly, and Diana was insanely smart and could definitely land herself in Yale or Harvard. She didn't seem like much at least, with a pink clip always in her short hair, but she could solve a Calc problem without writing anything down in a matter of seconds. Evanora adored her for it.

And Maggie...she seemed the most at home there. The community, the people, they were her connection to life. She was always alive when there were people around to talk to, to sustain her, almost like a succubus if Evanora was being honest, and it was positively enchanting. She glowed when she talked to people, feeling just at home. But even Maggie, who could belong, could go anywhere and belong.

So maybe it wasn't just a Halloweentown, but that didn't mean she liked being there. Hilltown was still small, still had nothing to do, still had Marisol Vera and Colleen breathing down her neck and saying that it was all for the best that she was there. She still didn't have freedom, she still was being forced and bound and she just wanted to break free.

Maybe she liked her friends, but she still hated Hilltown. The cons would always outweigh the pros in her mind. And she hadn't been very quiet about her complaints, even if Colleen told her she should be. Even though Colleen's words haunted her, about the power the Elders held, how they could throw her in Tartarus or kill her, she still would not back down.

Maybe that meant she had a death wish, but what was life without a little dance with death? It just made a little more entertaining in her mind. But she didn't like to think about the bad side of the Elders, of what they could do to her exactly, even if she wanted to rile up and make every witch know that they shouldn't trust the Elders. It was hypocritical, maybe, but she didn't like to think about her own demise.

It wasn't yet Halloween, though the holiday was definitely approaching, and as she walked around the neighborhood, intending to go to a local park and spend time in nature, she could see all the decorations that were supposed to be in the spirit of the spooky day. Evanora hated the ugly witches with warts the houses had because, excuse you, witches could be very hot, thank you very much. And, not to toot her own horn, but she thought she looked pretty good.

She was young and had great genetics, so maybe she was little vain and a little too prideful in her looks, but she had good genes, so could you blame her? She was not some ugly green witch cackling over a cauldron with long fingernails and warts covering her face, she was just like any human.

It didn't take her long to get to Armistead Park, near the edge of the woods where not a lot of people went. She had been there with Tommy before, on a Saturday morning where children were playing, but now it was Sunday afternoon, near nightfall, and no one was around. It was great for her to connect with the nature, feeling the ground underneath her, feeling the creek in the woods call to her as water always did.

Evanora laid down onto the ground, looking up at the sky, feeling content. Colleen had not bothered since last weekend with their small screaming match, and she hadn't forced Evanora to train and grow stronger in her power. It was the best weekend she had since she moved to Hilltown.

"You a tree hugger of something?" she heard an amused voice behind her. She looked up, seeing a woman, who was about her age maybe a few years older, looking down on her.

"I wouldn't say that," Evanora shook her head, sitting up on her elbows to look at the stranger.

"Oh?" the stranger raised an eyebrow, sitting down on the ground to join her, "What would you call yourself then?"

Evanora shrugged. Every witch had a connection to nature, to the earth where magic flowed from freely before entering their veins and allowing them their power. Earth was home, water was home, and sometimes it was nice to lie with nature and feel that connection flow through her.

"Someone who needs to get out of their house," Evanora joked, a smile on her face. That was part of the truth. She needed to get out of that suffocating house where she lived with Colleen, and she needed to just relax with her magic.

She wasn't always so tense. Before, with her mother, there was never pressure to use her magic. It was wanted, looked on with pride when she did, but it wasn't like with Colleen who forced her every weekend to grow her magic. Her magic never made her tense, it always made her relax, but now her magic wasn't a source of power; it was a source of bondage.

This was supposed to bring her back to her roots, back to that love for her water bending, back to that freedom.

"Don't we all?" the stranger joked along, and it felt natural between them, like they had been friends forever, the only thing breaking that familiarity was when the stranger said, "I'm Prue."

"Nora," she said in response, and she blinked because she felt like she was with Tommy or Diana, joking, when in reality Prue was a stranger. "You always start conversations with girls laying down in the grass?'

Prue shrugged. "Not always, but they're the most interesting, so why not?" she giggled to herself, "Always gotta story to tell. So what's been suffocating you at home?"

"Oh, you know, this and that," not wanting to spill her guts to a stranger, she shrugged. If she didn't tell her friends about everything wrong with Colleen, why the hell would she tell Prue? "Disagreements with my guardian."

Prue hummed and nodded along with that, "My parents and I never got along. We were always fighting because they had this plan for my life and I didn't wanna follow through with it."

"Well, isn't that the story of my life?" Evanora chuckled at the similarities between them.

"But most people go to parties, or hang out with their friends, they don't go to parks by themselves," Prue noted, looking at her, "You know, they call most women in the woods alone witches."

Evanora looked at her, feeling as though in her eyes that Prue knew. That Prue knew about witches, that maybe she was one, or that she knew Evanora was one. She felt frozen for a moment, like her life was about to end, but then she smiled. Juliana Hathaway always said that the best way to deal with suspecting people was to play along.

This wasn't a witch hunt if she didn't let it be, and even if Prue was a witch, it was better not to expose herself. Not all witches were nice to each other, some didn't like others in their area, more elusive.

"Here I thought Salem burned all the witches," she joked, playing along as Juliana used to tell her. "Or that they had to be green and ugly."

Prue shrugged, "Maybe in the media, but come on, you don't believe that, do you?"

She peered into Evanora's eyes, like she was peering into her soul, like she could read her mind. Evanora had to break the contact, feeling her heart race a little more. "You calling me a witch?" she asked, though she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer or see the consequences.

But Prue just easily smiled. "Me? Never," she assured Evanora, a little chuckle at the end of her voice, "But normal people don't come to a park to get away from their parents."

Evanora didn't correct her. She didn't have any parents, her father was never in her life (and never would be, according to her mother, as long as she lived), and now her mother was dead. And it made her wonder why Juliana hated her father so much that she would keep Evanora away from him. But now her mother was dead, so where was her father? If she had to be dead for her dad to come back in her life, where was he? Definitely not saving her from Colleen and the Elders – ugh!

"Maybe I didn't feel like talking to anyone," Evanora shrugged, "Maybe I felt like being alone."

"Ouch, I am great company, thank you," Prue joked, and while before Evanora felt at peace with her, now she felt on edge. This girl knew something, and she wasn't sure if Prue was friendly or not. When she saw that Evanora did not laugh, her smile dimmed and she nodded, "Well, if that's how you feel, I guess I'll be leaving now. But think about what I said."

As she got up, Evanora saw a tattoo on her arm. It didn't look like a normal tattoo that anyone would get, not a couple hearts or a little word of encouragement, but something that Evanora felt had a great significance.

Prue smiled at her again. "See you around, Nora," and then she walked away. Evanora watched her go, not taking her eyes off the figure of the stranger, until she was gone from her sight and she let out a sigh of relief. No doubt Colleen would want to know about this encounter. It could be nothing, or it could be a demon, and if it was, that was bad.

But part of her wanted to keep it from Colleen, and not just the spiteful part. Somewhere in her brain said that she should keep this to herself, to not let the Elders know about Prue, and that part was much larger than her want to tell Colleen.

As she stood up herself, she decided that this would a secret between her and Prue to keep. At least, for now. No one needed to know about her.

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LATER, AFTER DARK WHEN SHE WAS DEEP INTO A MATH PROBLEM, HER PHONE RANG. She picked it up and saw Maggie's name on her screen and it didn't take another moment for her to swipe to answer the call, placing it on speaker, and putting it on her bed.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked Maggie over the phone, looking back at her stats problem.

"Hey, Nora!" Maggie cheerily said on the other end, and despite herself, Evanora felt a smile tug onto her lips at the girl's voice. What, okay? So she was weak to the sound of a cute girl saying her name so happily, sue her! "I just wanted to talk to you about something."

"Alright," Evanora nodded, even though it was pointless because it wasn't like Maggie could see her since it was just a call and not Facetime. "What's going on?"

"It's about Brian and I. I know you're probably over all of this, Diana is, but I just can't stop thinking about him. I mean, I know that I'm the one who broke up with him, but I can't help but want to get back with him. I mean, he's just so hot and he looks so sad right now and I can't stand it," Maggie lamented.

"Well, do you actually wanna be with him? You said that you didn't see the two of you being together in the future," Evanora reminded her, trying not to let a tone of envy leak out. It wasn't Maggie's fault that she was straight and that Evanora had a crush on her because she was so cute and nice and Evanora couldn't help but fall for girls that were cute and nice.

She heard Maggie sigh on the other end. "Yeah, I know, and I do. Well, I think I do anyway. Brian just understands me, you know? We've known each other all our lives and he's always been there and it's hard because I've barely spoken to him at all since we broke up and it's weird. I'm so not used to it."

"It's normal to have some separation after a break up, it's good," Evanora said, "But, like, didn't you two decide to still be friends?"

"Yeah, but I don't really know how to talk to him when he just looks so sad whenever I talk to him. It makes me feel guilty."

Evanora frowned. "You shouldn't feel guilty for breaking up with him. You're doing what's best for yourself and he needs to understand that."

Maggie was quiet for a second before saying, "Yeah, you're right, but I can't help it! It's different this time. Like, it's not just because I don't see a future with him, it's also that I think I like someone else. I'm just so used to Brian, it's so easy with him, there's nothing exciting."

She felt her heart skip a beat when Maggie said that she liked someone new. Because, really, that's just great. Someone else she was going to start to hate even though they were probably a great person, all because they held the affection of Maggie and she didn't. So that sucked.

"Oh? You like someone else?" Evanora asked, trying to just be a friend and not someone who liked Maggie.

"Um, yeah. I shouldn't have said that, not even Diana knows and she's my best friend...but yeah. I don't really know, nothing will probably come from it, but it really didn't feel right being with Brian when I liked someone else. And it's not like I can say that to him."

"You can, maybe it'll help," Evanora suggested.

She heard Maggie's soft voice, and she felt more butterflies erupt in her stomach. It was just such a pretty sound. "I really can't. When Brian found out that Justin Fields had a crush on me, he went mad. So if I tell him that I like someone else, he won't rest until he finds out who."

"That's doesn't seem good at all," Evanora frowned, "Especially if you aren't even with him anymore."

"Yeah, I know."

"No, I'm being serious, that's some sick shit," Evanora stressed, "He shouldn't have done that if Justin didn't do anything to you, but just liked you."

Maggie was quiet again. "Maybe, but I don't know. Brian just really cares about me. We've dated since freshman year."

"But that doesn't mean you have to date him forever," Evanora reminded her, "It's okay to like someone else, and it's okay to not wanna be with Brian anymore. He just needs to get with the program and stop trying to guilt trip you back into a relationship."

"I guess," Maggie conceded, "Oh, fuck! Sorry, I gotta go, We're having dinner. See you tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow!" Evanora returned, seeing the call end before collapsing back onto her bed. Fuck, she was in some deep shit. She just gave love advance to her crush, because her crush liked someone else, and her crush's ex was a dick sometimes. What the fuck?