03/08/2025
Excert from The Companion
Early Childhood
Serena's mother was a well-known white witch with a talent to create white magic potions, herbal healing potions, and potions used to create spells.
She began teaching these same talents to her daughter Serena at the age of two. When she was nearly five Serena asked her mother why she never infused her magical essence into the herbs she created.
Her mother laughed, “What a silly notion that is. No one in my family has ever been able to do Serena.”
Serena just stared at her mother, confused by her statement. However, she clamped her mouth shut and did not reveal that she had been doing just that to the potions she was tasked to do.
Whereas her mother was a white witch her father had a touch of the darkness magic could sometimes take. This did not make him an evil warlock. He fought to keep the evil out of his soul every day. He taught his daughter to do the same once he realized she too had inherited some of his magic.
In fact, it was he who taught her how to add a little essence of her magic to boost the power of the potions she made.
He never told her not to tell her mother she did this. Serena inherently knew that she herself was more of a powerhouse witch than her mother was. She realized her mother was not a strong witch; just a knowledgeable one.
Two days after that conversation with her father a woman came to the school and she was brought to the office where they had told her both her parents had died, This woman then took her and dropped her into her first foster home. She was not allowed to go home and pack her things; this person had done that already. She only got one suitcase that held about one third of her clothes, a single picture of her parents, and just one of the dolls off her bed, not even her favorite.
The home she took her to had about five more kids there, all fosters like her. One cranky old man who reeked of ci**rs and whiskey. His wife was mean and would hit you with a wooden spoon if you spoke to her. Luckily this house was only about two blocks from her home. Once the house was quiet, she sneaked out the door and went to her house where she packed up the family’s grimoires into a small footlocker along with family pictures and her dad's wand and mother's jewels. She put the locker into her wagon and pulled it to the edge of the property where an old tree was hollowed out and stuffed it in and then covered it with brush. She would come back for it when she felt safe again. Later she climbed back into the window at the foster home without anyone knowing she had ever left.
Over the years Serena learned not to trust anyone she met in foster care. She had been in ten different homes, been beaten, or bullied, and nearly r***d. Every time she was forced out and sent to another home, she learned to scare the hell out of the other kids by lighting her fingers on fire and taunting them. They stayed away from her.
When she was taken to the last foster home, she was told due to her age and attitude she would be allowed to age out of the system at this group home if she followed the house rules of the house mother. She had only been there two hours when the housemother called her into her office.
There was another girl there too, dressed in dark goth clothes and looking more like a ghost; she was so pale. She was a very petite little thing.
The housemother told them that none of the others wanted to share a room with them as both of their reputations had proceeded them to this house.
Serena looked over at the girl who wore a mid-length all black dress or skirt, an overlarge bulky black sweater, black boots that hugged her ankles. Her face was white, and sickly looking instead of the white powder that most of the goths wore, with dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep with black lipstick on her lips. Serena guessed this was to make her look goth when she really was just deathly ill looking. Serena was shocked to see ancient wisdom within her eyes although she appeared to be the size of an eight-year-old she saw she was closer to her own age.
They both stood and followed the housemother out and up the stairs, lugged their suitcases with them to an attic bedroom. The room was not small at least as she glanced around. Two beds, two chests of drawers and two small closets. She had seen a small bathroom as they passed in the hall So they would not share with others.
The minute they were alone and could hear, the sound of footsteps descending those stairs she turned to the tiny girl and lit up her fingers with flames as she warned the girl to keep her hands off her stuff and off her.
The girl began laughing in a hysterical manner and simply blew out the fire upon her fingers. She then threw her bags onto the bed on the left side with the sloping wall. She dropped herself onto the bed still laughing in that maniacal manner. Serena was convinced she might be insane. Serena was not certain what kind of magic this wee girl processed but she could feel it radiating off her. She shrunk away from her in fear.
Over the next two weeks they barely spoke to one another. Serena became aware of how cold the room became when Renee entered it. Sometimes she would catch movement in the corner of her eye, but nothing was there when she turned around to look. Often when she entered the room, she heard Renee talking to someone only for her to stop as if she was alone. But the freakiest thing was when she would be sitting in the desk area with the mirror above it where she could see reflected in it was a boy with a knife protruding out of his back. Only whenever she turned for a closer look did he fade out yet still visible in the mirror.
Another annoying thing was Renee had night terrors; she cried out in her sleep often enough that Serena would be awoken.
It so happened that on one of these occasions Serena saw a black shadow hovering over the girl’s bed. Serena grabbed up the knife she had begun to keep under her pillow and stabbed at that shadow. The damn thing popped just like a damn balloon and blew away in a black dust cloud. Serena turned on the lamp and looked over at Renee.
The girl is covered with small nicks and cuts on her neck, arms, and even her stomach all bleeding a bit.
“What the hell was that thing?” Serena whispered in shock.
“That is what is known as a demon as far as I know from my research.” Renee whispered back at her. “I do not know why they come to attack me. None of the other ghosts that hang around me know either. Thank you for killing that one for me.” She shuttered as a single tear coursed down her cheek.
Serena went to the bathroom got a warm washcloth and began wiping all of the numerous nicks and scrapes on her body while she listened to Renee tell her all about these demons, then she talked about her ghosts, and how hard it was to be in this ongoing battle without family or friends.
Serena shared with her how she lost her family and that she was a witch. The two of them bonded that night and have remained friends ever since.
