By NAMB
Copyright 2019 by NAMB all rights reserved
* * * * *
Lisa, Ann and Madison were best of friends since pre-school days.
Lisa and Ann felt sad for their friend when Madison’s grandmother died. They knew her as a sweet old lady.
The family liquidated her estate with the various relatives claiming
pieces of jewelry, furniture and the odd nick-knack here and there with
little dispute. Grandma made it obvious about who she wanted to get
what.
Madison’s grandmother made it known that there
was an old trunk up in the attic and that it was to be given to
Madison. It was up there for decades even grandpa, when he was alive,
hadn’t been up there since shortly after they bought the house.
It turned out that there were two trunks in the attic. One contained
antique dolls and their clothing, and a doll’s tea set made from real
china; the other was locked. So it was decided that Madison would get
both chests.
She brought them home and cleaned the
dust off them. Madison took the contents of the open chest and put them
on display in her bookcase as sort of a memorial to her beloved
grandmother.
She did not have the heart to damage the
second chest to open it, so she put it in the back of her closet and
basically forgot about it.
The girl also inherited some minor jewelry pieces, and these were kept in a small cloth sack in the house safe.
About a year after closing the estate, Madison was chosen as a
bridesmaid at her older cousin’s wedding. It was decided that it was
time to break out her jewelry. As she took a pair of earrings out of
the bag, she also found a key. She thought not much of it at the time
and it sat on her desk until after the wedding.
As
she was sitting at her computer, she looked at the key which sat in a
small cup containing other articles such as pencils and her regular
house keys.
Then it occurred to her to try it in the lock for the chest in her closet. It fit, and it opened.
The box had a few jars of what might have been liquid, long ago
evaporated, and a couple of urns of powder and crystals, some of which
smelled a bit odd.
But the main thing in the chest
was the book. It was about the size of a large family Bible and leather
bound and inside was writing – not the printing of a printing press,
but actual hand scribed lettering.
It was written in
what appeared to be an obscure kind of English. Many of the words were
vaguely familiar but spelling was off and she gathered from the context
of what she could understand that the f-looking symbol really was to be
pronounced like “s” especially when doubled-up. There were also strange
symbols spread among the text.
She recognized some of
them: at least the symbols for woman and man and investigated more of
them on her computer. The man and woman symbols also had another
meaning: Mars and Venus as did the rest of the symbols which were
astronomical or, more correctly, astrological in intent.
She spent a good part of the evening with the book until her mom
demanded that she go to bed, trying to translate the text. The strange
writing swirled in her head as she dozed. Then, even though she had not
translated more than an isolated word here and there, a thought arose
in the nebulous region of her consciousness between sleep and
wakefulness, where the boundary separating fantasy from reality is
gossamer. It occurred to her that this was no ordinary book; it was a
book on witchcraft!
-=o=-
Madison
called Lisa and Ann at the unheard-of hour of 8 AM on a Saturday
morning. Both girls complained about being awoken in what, for a tween
girl, is the middle of the night on a weekend. Until, that is when
Madison explained what she had discovered the previous night.
“I really haven’t translated it all yet. In fact, I’ve only managed a
sentence or two. It’s difficult to read but as I go along, I’m
beginning to understand it better.” She explained.
The girls decided to meet up at Lisa’s house at 11. Her dad was out of
town on a business trip and her mom would never miss her tennis lesson.
The girls would have the house to themselves for a couple of hours.
“Are you sure about this?” Lisa asked when Madison arrived.
Ann didn’t give the girl a chance to answer when she chimed in, “Let’s see it.”
Now that it came down to it, Madison felt a little reluctant to let the
other girls see the book. It was almost as if she were betraying her
grandmother’s trust. She felt like the book was like the Arc of the
Covenant: only the high priest was able to see it. To herself she
prayed, “Please understand, grandma. These are my best friends. You can
trust them. They can help me translate this book.”
Reluctantly, she took it out of the bag she had put it in and laid it on the kitchen table around which they all gathered.
She opened it gingerly and the girls gasped.
“Look at that!” Lisa said, “Have you ever seen such beautiful
handwriting? This has to have been written by a woman. No man could
write so beautifully.”
“I’m glad they didn’t make us write that good when we took penmanship,” Ann quipped.
At first, the girls made little progress with the strange wording,
spelling and sentence structures of the text. But as they read they
found the reading easier. None of them were gifted in languages and
normally read books at grade level.
However, it was
as if the book was trying to reveal itself to the girls. At first, they
could make out partial words, then whole words, then strings of words
and finally whole sentences.
The task was not really
to translate the words; the words needed no translation. It wasn’t like
they were working with a foreign language learning the meaning of new
words; it was more like they were recalling words that they once knew,
but had until now forgotten. Their meanings were there waiting to be
rediscovered.
Within about two hours of concentrated
effort, the girls were reading more fluently. Maybe not as easily as if
they had been reading a gossip magazine but enough that they were
getting more and more context out of the first reading of any part the
text. They realized that they would have to go back and re-read some
passages over and over.
But this material was far
juicier than gossip. It was dark; it was interesting and it spoke of
the feminine power of witches, although it never actually used the word
“witch.” There was another, strange word for it that the girls choose
to translate as witch.
It spoke of the feminine power
coming from the very earth itself. It was a kindred spirit with the
power of nature in all of its awe and majesty. Power, according to the
book, was drawn from the very space and time of the universe, and only
the feminine spirit had the right “connections” to draw this power.
All girls have it and it comes to maturity with them. With puberty
comes the ability to use this power and the three girls were just
coming into this power. Perhaps that’s why the book chose this time to
reveal itself to Madison and her friends.
“If I read
this right,” Ann said, “the power of a witch is multiplied when she
uses it with her sister witches. There is something magical about ‘The
Trinity:’ a coven of three witches. The book speaks over and over about
the ‘power of three.’ Can’t you feel it?”
Madison
responded, “I know what you mean. I read the book last night and it
made me feel funny, but with the two of you here the feeling is a lot
stronger.”
“Funny in what way?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t really know how to put it in words, but I became more aware
that I was a girl, a female, and in intimate harmony with nature. It
was sort of like opening a door and letting the universe in.”
Lisa nodded, “Yes, that’s sort of what I’m feeling too. It’s like the
three of us are here in three separate bodies, but I can more than see
the two of you and hear the two of you: I can feel both of you. It’s
like our souls are touching each other.”
Madison
blushed, “Somehow I knew you were going to say that. That’s the feeling
I have. It’s like the two of you are helping me hold open this door to
the universe.”
“Me too,” said Ann. “Are we getting to the point where we can read each other’s minds?”
“I don’t know. The more we read my grandma’s book, the deeper it seems
to be sucking us in. There is the chapter on mind control: of casting a
spell at a distance. How can you do that if you can’t get into the
other person’s mind?”
Ann giggled. It broke the
solemn mood the girls had been in up until now. “Can you imagine
putting a spell on a boy and making him do anything you want him to
do?”
“That would be too cool,” Madison admitted. “So which boys in our class should we make our slaves?”
“Thrall,” Lisa said, “the word is thrall: someone who is enslaved not by force, but by a spell that controls his mind.”
“With the three of us working together,” Madison speculated, “what boy could stand up to us.”
Ann added her comments, “There was a time, just this morning as a
matter of fact, when I would enjoy that idea as a fantasy. Now I’m not
so sure. There are spells in the book should we try some of them?”
“Wait a minute!” Madison cautioned, “We don’t know what we got here. We
might actually hurt somebody. I think we should go slow. The book
cautions about untrained witches trying too much at once.”
“OK, have it your way. Let’s look for a simple spell. Maybe a love spell. That can’t hurt anyone, can it?”
“Ann’s got a point, Madison. How many witches do you know? I mean
besides Ann and me. Who’s around to train us? We’re going to have to
lean how to do this on our own. And who knows, maybe when we get good
at it, we can train other girls.”
“Alright, you guys win. I think we should read the section on fetishes again.”
“I didn’t understand that part too well,” Ann put in.
“Me neither,” Lisa added.
“It sort of makes sense to me. Maybe because I read the book last night even though hardly any of it made sense then.
In ancient times, there were fetishes for every purpose: success in
business, good health, a good crop, getting pregnant or making someone
fall in love with you.
A fetish is an object that is
consecrated by the witch. She says magic words over it or puts a spell
into it. It’s like she stores part of her power in it.”
“Sort of like Sauron’s Ring in Lord of the Rings?”
“Exactly. The person who uses the ring gets power but the power comes
at a cost. Eventually the user’s will is bent to the power of the ring
and the ring master or in this case, the fetish and the fetish maker.
So it is with the fetish object. It has the witch’s power in it, but it
eventually takes over the mind of the person using it. The person using
the fetish still has the power of the fetish, but the power is only an
extension of the witch’s will. It is like she is controlling him,
making him do her bidding and lending him her power to carry it out.
A fetish is a powerful item in its own right. A witch is a powerful
woman in her own right. A witch, yielding a fetish, is even more
powerful; a trinity of witches is invincible.”
“So when do we get started?” Ann asked.
“Started on what?”
“Started on making a fetish!”
“I don’t think we have time for that today. My mom’s going to be back
in about 15 minutes. I don’t know how long it takes to make a fetish,
but I think it’s longer than it takes to bake a batch of cookies. We
don’t have time for it.”
“We can meet at my house
tomorrow after church.” Madison offered. Then she laughed, “What would
the minister say if he knew what we were planning?”
-=o=-
Madison opened the coven’s second meeting with, “I’ve read more of the
book and I’ve given this some thought. I think the kind of fetish we
invent should be something that makes the person feel happy. It will be
like a drug: it makes you feel good now, but you have to come back to
your supplier for more and more.”
“Ooh, I like that idea,” Ann remarked.
“So what kind of an object should this be?” Lisa asked.
“It has to be something that the other person would want to possess or at least come in contact with.”
“And who should we target?” Lisa asked.
“I think some kid our age. Anybody would probably do, but I think it would be more fun if it were a boy.”
“I like that idea. So like I said, what kind of an object do we use?” Lisa repeated.
“Wasn’t there a movie about a doll that was possessed by demons?”
“Don’t be crazy, Ann. No boy is going to play with a doll.”
“Girls, girls, you’re missing the point. This isn’t about demonic
possession. That’s a mixture of Hollywood and old wives folk-lore.
Our power doesn’t come from some evil spirit. It comes from the
universe itself. We’re girls. We channel the power. In our case: the
power of three which is more than three times the power of any one of
us and it comes through us.”
“Do you mean that every girl has the power?” Lisa asked.
“Yes. That’s what the book is telling us. I have the book with me all
the time, so I can read up on this stuff. Even just being in the
presence of the book has its effect. I feel like it is speaking to me
through closed covers, giving me incite and interpretation. Every girl,
once she becomes a woman, has the power. The problem is that most girls
don’t know they have this power.
They blunder around
in the dark and even if they do sense some power, they either are
afraid to use it or don’t know how to use it.
That’s why this book is so important. It is teaching us not only about the power, but how to focus it and control it.”
“What about boys? Don’t they have the power too?”
“No they don’t. There is something about having a penis that prevents
boys from taking it in. Penises are all about expulsion. Vaginas are
about acceptance. Boys are all ‘on the outside’ physically and in other
ways. Girls are sheltered and protected.
Boys have
power, but not like this. Their power is all physical: it’s the here
and now. Girl Power is a different sort of power. It’s beyond the
physical and it’s beyond just the present moment.
The
book speaks of being able to draw upon the power of women and girls who
went before us. I can almost feel like my grandmother is here with us.
I don’t know if she was a witch, but I like to believe she was.
The power comes from the physical universe as it is now but also beyond
the physical universe as it is now. It is a bigger-than-physical
universe as it exists, as it existed and as it will exist.
Our power is passed onto us by the girls who came before us and our
actions, our lives, will power the generation of girls who will follow
us.”
Lisa and Ann looked at their friend. Madison was
always a serious girl and very practical. When did she become a mystic?
Then upon reflection they had to ask the same questions about
themselves. Even flighty Ann was growing into the cult.
“So what kind of item do we want for our fetish?” Lisa asked.
“I’ve given this a bit of thought. I think a flash drive would be just the thing.”
“A flash drive, like what you put into a computer?”
“Yes! It is something someone is likely to pick up out of curiosity.”
“And what will be on this flash drive?”
“Just a text file. According to the book, there are some spells that
can be cast by making the person on whom the spell is to be cast say
the words. Maybe reading the words would work as well. I mean, what
witch in the past had access to such technology?”
“And what kind of spell do we want to cast?”
“There is a fetish for protection. It protects people from harm. That
should be a very safe spell to cast the first time around.”
Lisa was willing to sacrifice one of her flash drives. They made the
text file: an incantation of a half dozen words – translated into
modern English text, which to any other person would be gibberish and
copied it to the drive. They gave it the ever-so-innocent name,
“ReadMe.txt.”
They then placed the drive on the table, each touching it with her finger while reading a chant from the book three times.
-=o=-
“Where should we put it?” Ann asked as they arrived at school the following day?
“I think we should put it on the floor of our homeroom and see who picks it up.” Madison replied.
The who that picked it up was a boy named Charles Brown. Like his
cartoon counterpart, he was sort of an outsider, a bit nerdish and was
one of the favorite targets of the class bullies.
Even the girls in the coven looked down on him and when he picked it up
Madison was disappointed. “What a loser, she thought. Our first fetish,
and it winds up with someone like *him*.”
The match
up of fetish and fetishist had the girls disappointed, but they agreed
to proceed with caution. They observed the boy for the rest of the
week. They noticed that he was not being picked upon by the bullies.
They just seemed to ignore him. Was this coincidence; were they too
busy picking on other boys to be concerned with him?
A second week went by and still the bullies seemed oblivious to his
existence. They also noticed that Charles would often finger an object
that he had in his pocket and when they finally got a glance at it,
they saw it was their flash drive!
Charles was a nerd
and completely logical. Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame would have been
proud of him. Surely, he didn’t believe in superstitions like good luck
charms? How did he associate the flash drive with his newly-found
freedom?
The girls were convinced: he must have read
the incantation and it “told” him, somehow, that when he carried this
object, the bullies would leave him alone.
The girls
were also convinced that the fetish object found him instead of the
other way around. It had a will of its own. It had to prove its worth
and found someone to possess it that would do that. Before Charles knew
what it was, the flash drive drew him to it. Somehow, the object was
“happy” that it could fulfill the purpose for which it was created.
The girls also noticed that Charles was “stalking” them. It wasn’t
exactly stalking, but he did seem to want to be in their presence more
often. He was too shy to be more overt than doing things like choosing
a lunch table closer to them. Could he somehow, unconsciously, know
that the girls were the ultimate source of his power?
The girls now believed that they did have the power to make fetishes and cast spells.
-=o=-
The girls met in another coven meeting. Madison opened the meeting with
a concern. “Our experiment with Charles has been a success, but I
discovered something in the book that has me worried.”
“What’s that?” Lisa asked.
“It seems that there is a way to put a time limit on a spell so it
expires. We didn’t know that when we made the fetish. I think the book
says that there is some sort of default time limit and that the fetish
will gradually go away after that, but I’m having difficulty right now
translating that part.
Also, I am concerned about the side effects.
Charles may be free from the bullies for now, but is he every going to
learn self-respect? I mean if he had stood up to them or at least
endured them, then it would have developed a dimension of his
personality that will now go to waste.
Also, the poor
boy is smitten with us, or “enthralled” as Lisa would say. And we know
that’s not going anywhere. Of course, I might be overthinking this. He
simply maybe grateful for a reason he can’t understand.”
Ann replied, “You don’t know that Madison. Without the bullies picking
on Charles, he might develop confidence. Sometimes you have to ‘fake it
until you make it.’ He might try things he’s never tried before and
those experiences will give him self-respect.
You really can’t tell where these paths will lead.”
“Exactly,” Madison responded, “We don’t know where the paths we set
these people on will lead so we have to choose them carefully.
We are still learning our craft. We don’t even know how permanent the
spells are and if they can be recalled. I am sure we can learn to
manage that with time, but for the moment we’re still in the toddler
stage.”
“So who is our next victim?”
“Ann! Don’t say things like that.” Madison admonished. “We’re not out
to hurt people. This is a tremendous power we have and with tremendous
power comes tremendous responsibilities.
I like to
think of them as more like test subjects. We subject them to unusual
circumstances to see how they will react. As long as we take care not
to hurt them, it should be OK.”
“OK, I get it and I
apologize. But who should we try a spell on next? There is no sense in
having the power and not trying it out.”
“I think this time it should be a girl.” Madison offered. It will be interesting to see how a spell works on one of us.”
“Who do you have in mind?” Lisa asked.
“Stephanie Trainer.”
“Stephanie? THE Stephanie, head cheerleader, cock-tease and all-around, stuck-up princess?”
“Is there any other?”
“Why her?”
“Because she is head cheerleader, cock-tease and all-around, stuck-up princess. A bit of humility would do her some good.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Unrequited love. Stephanie is good looking and she knows that all the
boys go ga-ga over her and she likes to lead them on and then dump them
because she can. It’s like she collects boys the way little boys
collect sports playing cards: who has the most and who has the best.
She is always flaunting it that she can have any boy she wants and can
turn them on and off as easily as turning water on and off at the tap.”
Madison said.
“So what should we do? Infest her with warts so the boys won’t look at her?” Ann put in.
“No, but I think a misdirected love spell will go a long way.”
“Oh! Do tell.”
“What I have in mind is having her fall in love with Charles. Charles,
of course, is totally clueless when it comes to girls. He’ll ignore
her. It will not only break her heart, but it will humiliate her when
others notice how she’s throwing herself at a loser like Charles.”
“Now you’re doing it.” Ann said.
“Doing what?”
“Judging other people. Charles is not a loser. He’s just an odd person. We should leave him alone.”
“Correction accepted. I apologize to Charles in absentia. No, this
won’t hurt Charles at all. Not only will he not know what is going on,
he won’t even notice it. He’s that kind of person.
However, I think this time we should deliberately make the spell
temporary. It’s a skill we need to learn. Let it have an expiration
date, so before we cast it, let’s read up on how to do that. I’m sure
that with the three of us working on it, we’ll crack the code.”
That was an odd thing about the book: each time the girls read a
passage it seemed to say more and impart more knowledge that the
previous time the passage was read.
The girls went to work and put together the proper chant and committed it to memory.
The next day, they met Stephanie in the hall. Madison called to her, “Stephanie, could I have a word with you?”
Stephanie responded with a roll of her eyes and a sigh. Madison, Lisa
and Ann were not in her inner circle. It’s not like they dated hot boys
she could steal. They weren’t rich and although well-enough-liked, they
weren’t popular with the “in” crowd. What could they have to say that
would possibly be important to her?
So she faced Madison and said, “What do you want?” with some annoyance in her voice.
Lisa and Ann took up positions behind and to the side of her so that
she was in the center of the triangle formed by the three girls.
Without prompt, the girls started their chant simultaneously. Stephanie
just stood there for the handful of seconds that the girls were
chanting.
Then, as if the gibberish actually meant
something to her, she said with equal disdain as her opening statement,
“Is that all you wanted to tell me?”
Madison nodded and said, “Yes. Have a nice day.”
The three girls departed but observed Stephanie from a distance for the
rest of the day. She flirted with a few other boys: the spell certainly
did not prohibit that, but she also made some overtures to Charles that
looked like they could have been come-ons. They totally went over
Charles’ head both figuratively and physically. She stood about a half
foot taller than the boy.
The next day was more
dramatic. At lunch she was seated with some of her friends when Charles
sat down at a nearby table. She broke off the conversation with her
friends, picked up her lunch and sat down next to Charles who at first
didn’t even seem to notice that she was there.
It was
obvious that she was trying to start up a conversation with the boy,
but he must have been responding with yeses and nos and non-committal
answers with maybe a grunt or two thrown in. He seemed more interested
in his food than the fact that the sexiest girl in the school was
sitting next to him.
He finished his lunch and got up and it looked like he didn’t even say goodbye to her.
In the meantime, the girls noticed that they were not the only ones
watching this tableau. Other people in the cafeteria were also tuned in
and they overheard comments like “She must have lost some kind of bet,”
or “Maybe she’s doing it on a dare,” or “I wonder what her plan is; she
must want to humiliate him.”
As the week progressed
it was obvious that she was pursuing Charles. The rumor mill was
running in overdrive. “She can’t really like him, could she?” said many
of the girls. The boys said, “He must be extremely rich; there is no
other way someone like him could get a girl like her.” Speculation ran
high that he had some sort of incriminating evidence on her and was
blackmailing her.
Cruder references speculated that he must be exceptionally talented with his tongue or have a foot-long penis.
Some of the boys even approached him and asked, “What with it with you
and Stephanie?” His initial response was “Huh?” When they pointed out
how she was coming onto him he responded with “I dunno.”
The spell was intended to last only a week and it did wear off.
However, Stephanie’s reputation had now been taken down a notch or two.
The boys no longer saw her as the “big prize.” On the other hand, other
girls started to notice Charles. Some of them managed to make a
friendship with him, albeit not necessarily a romantic one.
-=o=-
“Well, all’s well that end’s well. That was certainly a success. Are we
ready to move on? I’d like to see us get something out of this.” Lisa
said.
“I think so,” said Madison. “For some strange
reason this all revolves around Charles. I don’t know if he has been
chosen or that’s just the way things are working out. I think the
universe is trying to tell us something here.”
“Haven’t we done enough for, or should I say to, the poor boy. I say we leave him alone.” Lisa responded.
“You’re right, this one won’t involve Charles directly. It’s the bullies that used to pick on him that I’d like to deal with.”
“Now you’re talking!” Ann said clapping her hands and rubbing them
together. “I’d like to see Ron, Sam and Dave taken down a notch or
two.”
“I think we need to plan a series of one-shot humiliations for them. We’ll start small and work our way up.”
“One shot,” Lisa giggled. “I got just the thing.”
“What is it?” Ann said.
“Well, you know how the boys are always playing basketball.”
“Oh you mean that kind of shot,” Ann said. “I thought you meant the other kind.”
Lisa had a confused look on her face and then with an Edith Bunker-like epiphany said, “Oh. Ooooh. You mean an ejaculation!”
Madison giggled, “Ann, you have a very dirty mind. I like that. But
before we run out and make the boys our sex slaves or whatever, I think
we still have to master crawling. I think Lisa is right, we’ll mess
with their basketball before we start messing with their real balls.”
Normally the girls paid no mind to the boys as they had their impromptu
basketball games, but they decided to take a seat and watch them play.
It was a boring game since it was just the three of them so they were
playing “horse” – just taking free-throws until missing 5 shots and
dropping out of the game and then doing it all over again.
The girls decided to make Ron their target. The boys were just starting
another round. Ron stepped up to the line, dribbled the ball twice,
took his stance and pushed the ball off towards the net. It hit the top
of the rim, bounced up and then out: a miss.
“That’s an H on you!” Sam exclaimed.
Sam and Dave made their throws and Ron was back up. This time the ball
swirled around the rim before spinning out: another miss.
“O on you.” Dave said.
Ron’s third and fourth shots also failed to go into the net. His final
shot never even hit the rim nor the backboard. As he scrambled off to
retrieve the errant ball, his friends jeered him with the chant “AIR
BALL.”
The girls sat there giggling to themselves as
they watched the boys play several more rounds with Ron not making a
single basket.
“What’s wrong with you man? Been jerking off too much? Are you going blind?” Sam taunted.
Dave got on his case too, “You shoot like a girl.”
It was getting late and the girls realized that they were running out
of time. So they concentrated on all three of the boys. Their final
game was five consecutive misses for each of the boys.
“I’ve had enough of this stupid game for today,” Ron said.
Having also been humiliated, both of the other boys agreed.
-=o=-
The next meeting of the coven was over at Ann’s house. “Well, we now
know that we can make a fetish, cast a spell with an expiration date
and can even do ad-hoc hexes.
What should we do next?”
“I agree,” Lisa said. “It’s been fun, but it’s also been weeks and we really didn’t do anything yet.”
“OK, you girls win. It’s time to do something really embarrassing to
the boys, but we have to be careful to make it look like it could
happen naturally. I don’t want to do something like make their clothes
vanish magically.”
“That would be nice,” Ann put in.
“I’d like to see what they look like. They say that the most aggressive
boys are that way to make up for their small penises. I wonder if that
is true.”
Lisa nodded, “Ann’s got a point there. I
was thinking along the line of making them get naked in front of a
group of girls, but making them get naked in front of other boys has
merit as well.”
“OK,” Madison said, “So we begin ‘Hell Week’ for the boys on Monday. I think we should start out slow and work our way up.”
“Gee, Maddy,” you sound like an old lady.
“Well, this is my grandmother’s book.”