#sci witches

Oscar has a fear of blood. A SERIOUS phobia of it. Whenever he sees it, he screams and tries to get away from it as best he can. This all started when he was young, and he scraped his knee VERY badly, and some kid told him he was probably gonna die...Oscar knows better than that now, but his lizard brain doesn’t really get the picture. 

Hedgehog has a fear of abandonment. She freaks out whenever someone doesn’t respond to a message after a certain amount of time. She does prefer time to herself, but only when she KNOWS that it’s her that’s causing herself to be alone. She hates the idea that she may have done something wrong. This comes from when her parents left her in a car while they went grocery shopping. She thought she’d been left for dead in the car. 

As discussed earlier in a fanfiction I wrote, Max has a crippling fear of loneliness. He hates the idea of being alone. He even has nightmares about it. This is why he got so good at making friends, so that he wouldn’t be alone.Though, no one is really sure WHERE his fear started from. He’s just always had this fear of loneliness. 

Susie, though she does seem pretty cantankerous, DOES actually have a big fear: wolves. She’d never tel a soul, not even Betsy. But she has a terrible phobia of them. Even there howls set her off. This may have to do with a number of reasons, whether it be that shes a cat or that they just scare her or what. But she HATES them, hence the animosity towards Hedgehog when she figures out she IS one. 

Alice has a fear of the dark. She usually prefers to have some sort of light on when she sleeps. She’s a bit cagey as to why she has this problem...sometimes she says it has to do with an event in her childhood. Sometimes, she says it has to do with her paranoia. Sometimes she just scolds the campers for asking. But that might be one of the reasons she makes everything cute; a lot of ‘cute’ things are afraid of the dark. 

Betsy? One word: Ocean. She’s scared to DEATH of the ocean. When she was younger, she almost drowned on a family trip. She’s fine being around it, but she CANNOT touch it...at all. 

Witches, every one of them

Ramona

The witch had chosen this life. Away from everyone. Isolated on the top of the mountain overlooking the ocean. Content with being the subject of scary stories, told by children up late at night. Ramona the witch was content with loneliness. And any adult who tried trespassing on her land, in HER domain, would find themselves destroyed. Possibly boiled, but most likely just killed.

Ramona the witch would kill a grown man for no reason other than spoiling her view.

But there was one thing Ramona could not stand...malice towards the young. She would never mean to terrorize children. It was only a result of her being a witch and, therefore, a reputation. But those children who were brave enough to find themselves on her land would be met only with brief chastisement. Maybe they might even get something out of the visit should they come at the right time. Maybe even a curse for someone who was being mean to you, or a meal if you are hungry...Ramona was seen as veil by all adults. But as a godsent to the children.

And one night, a child came to Ramona’s door, speaking in a frantic tone

“Ramona! Oh great witch Ramona! I have news from the village at your land’s border!” Said the small voice of a mouse, knocking on the door.

Ramona was boiling some potions in her cauldron. It was cold and rainy, and she planned to bring this potion to a friend to keep them warm. She got herself to the door, “Who could that be?” she asked, opening the door.

The shivered and shook in the rain, looking up to Ramona with a swollen black eye and a scar on his upper lip, bleeding as he spoke, “S-someone’s been hurting us!”

Ramona did not hesitate as she pulled the boy inside, wrapping him in the fur of a long dead animal and rubbing a poultice on his lip. She wasn’t necessarily a healer, but you tend to pick up a few tricks when you’ve been alive for over 200 years. She put some of the poultice on his eye and looked over to her second cauldron.

“I have some broth that you should have, my boy...isn’t much, but you’ll feel better.” She said, smiling gently and sitting the boy on a chair. “Now,” She spoke softly as she grabbed a ladle. “Tell me how this happened!”

The  boy spoke through choked sobs, sniffling as he looked around the cabin, “There’s a man...h-he’s big, and mean, and scary…” the boy jumped lightly as he thought about the man, “He goes around and finds us...us kids who don’t have anywhere to go! He hurts us...beats us with his fists, or worse…”

“And have you gone to the village elders? Surely something can be done.” Said Ramona, pouring the boy a bowl of the broth and handed it to the boy, tipping it to his lip.

The boy sheepishly drank, not able to do much with the poultice on his lip, “He IS an elder! That’s how he justifies hurting us like he does!”

Ramona paused. She was furious. She had nothing to do to this man...killing someone for trespassing on her land, that was ONE thing. But killing a village elder because some raggamuffin kid told her to? She’d get killed for that…

Then she got an idea. She thought. “...boy,” She said, “I want you to round up every child this man has tormented in the village and bring them here. I am going to take you all somewhere with me.”

“Where are you taking us?” The boy asked, looking over, “If you just keep us here, the man will surely come and find you! Everyone knows what your land looks like, and if you leave, they’ll take it and steal your magic!”

Ramona let out a small giggle as she looked over to the boy.

“Then I suppose we’ll have to take the land with us!”

Alice

Alice Celeste Fefferman wanted to see the world. Her time she’d spent in the old, boring world she’d inhabited was ...well, old and boring. She wanted adventure! Something exciting! Bombastic! Daring! And what better way to go about it than getting herself onto a ship?

Unfortunately, for her, there was no way harder than getting onto a ship, either. Ships were dangerous things, and her father would NOT hear a word of it. Silly old man...but he was right, not a lot of ships wanted someone like Alice. Alice wasn’t particularly skilled in any of the things necessary for running a ship. She couldn’t really tie a knot or use a sword or anything like that...she was small, though, and she was very quiet, even when being spoken to. That gave her an idea…

Finding a crate big enough to stuff herself into comfortably that also looked like something that belonged on a cargo ship bound for england was a difficult task, but she sure as hell did it. She had packed herself in there with enough food to last her until she knew the crew’s patterns. She figured that with observation, in about 6 days, she would know the ins and outs of how the crew operated on the ship. Then she could make routes to steal supplies.

And then...five days passed.

Alice had no feelings of homesickness, no feeling of regret...though, she was feeling kind of hungry. She hadn’t eaten, realizing she’d packed too little. She’d always been very bad at math. She was hungry and tired and bored. She was also cold, from all of the rainwater seeping into the bottom deck...If only she had someone to talk too… Before her daydreams could take hold, she heard something from the top deck. The one scream she was able to hear over the pelting rain. The one she did NOT want to hear.

“ABANDON SHIP!”

DAMN. She would have to figure something out, and FAST as she looked around the crate. She pushed her way out of it and look for an out...her crate must’ve been tighter than she thought. She stood now waist deep in water. She searched frantically for a porthole, and while she didn’t find one, she did find a seam in the panels, must’ve been where the leak was coming in…

AHAH! Land! Some sort of it, anyways. She could start a fire with the remains of the ship as they washed to shore, maybe fashion a weapon out of the wood and go hunting. But now wasn’t the time to daydream, she had to think. She couldn’t go on impulse here, it’s not like she could just jump out of the ship and swim to the island from here…

And it was with Alice’s impulsive thinking that she ended up in the freezing atlantic ocean clinging to two wooden boards and paddling herself to the island. She could’ve sworn she had a better idea for this when she had thought it up. But this was her current predicament. She couldn’t stop swimming, and yet she couldn’t feel her legs...what had she overheard someone say? You couldn’t last 15 minutes in this water without dying? Was that it? ‘Well,’ Alice thought to herself, ‘at least if I’m going to die, I’m going to die somewhere interesting…’ She would have cried, but she was far to exhausted.

“Hey! You!” Called out a voice...a female voice. No other women had been on the ship. Was this it? Was that her angel here to take Alice to the pearly gates? Alice slowly looked up and saw...a woman. She wore a pointy hat, and was in a small rowboat. THough it was exposed to the rain, the woman didn’t look like she’d gotten a drop on her.

“Who are you?” Alice asked, screaming out to her, “What do you want?”

“My name is Ramona, it looks like your ship sank. What year is it?”

Alice paused as she wondered what exactly was going on...but before she could, the other woman grabbed her and pulled her onto the rowboat.

“...it’s 1783.”

“Oh goodness, I’ve lost track of time, haven’t I?” The girl said, “What is your name?” She asked.

“My name is...Alice Fefferman.”

Ramona looked Alice in the eye, crossing her arms. “You wouldn’t happen to be interested in living, right?”

Alice looked at her palms, calloused and wrinkled. Her adventures hadn’t really brought her any excitement yet...she looked to the island.

“I could stand to live a while longer…”

Susie

“I AM NOT COMING OUT!” Susie belted at Alice from behind her cabin door. Susie had locked herself into her own cabin. Windows were shuttered. Doors were locked. No way to get in or see into the cabin. Susie wanted to be alone right now. But Alice was having NONE of it.

“SUSIE McCALLISTER! YOU OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!” Alice responded just as loud. Her arms crossed and her foot tapping. She was angry at Susie for hitting another one of the campers. She needed to be punished for this. “If YOU don’t let me in there THIS instant, I will unlock this door and FORCE my way in!”

Glass shattered and a scream was heard inside, followed by sniffling and silence...Alice didn’t hesitate, busting the door open and hoping not to find the body of a camper.

There was Susie McCallister. Her hand cut open, probably by accident. There was glass shattered on the floor. More likely to be a crystal ball that she’d shattered. The room was dark and messy, barely anything in it other than the bed. Seemed all the decoration had been stripped out.

Alice went from angry to mortified. It was a bad habit of hers, sometimes letting kids off based on false sob stories. But to actually see one of them becoming reality was pretty scary to her. She rushed to Susie and lifted her off of the floor. Susie didn’t struggle, just sniffling as she cried.

“What are you gonna do,” asked Susie, wryly and sarcastically, “you gonna use that glass to kill me?”  Susie roughly pulled away as she looked at her hands, blood dripping as she shook with pain.

“Susie, I’m good at healing, let me help you…” She said. Alice took out her wand and gently touched it to the wound.

“Might sting, but it’ll be quick. Promise.”

Alice gently let a spell from her wand, and while Susie did flinch, she noticed her hands get better. Susie’s choked gasps slowly died down as her wounds were healed.

“Can you tell me why you hit Matilda?” Asked Alice, magically picking the glass up off of the floor and moving it to a waste basket. She looked to Susie and crossed her arms.

“She said I was like my mum.” Susie said, dejectedly looking at the floor as all scolded youth were prone to do.

“Do you not like your mothe-”

“I HATE HER.” Susie screamed out, then quickly covered her mouth, not wanting to spill the beans to Alice that quickly. She sat on the floor, just looking pitiable. Alice sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her.

“We all have people we don’t like. But it’s your job to avoid them,” said Alice, “And their job to avoid you.” She scratched Susie’s head.

“You can’t avoid your mother that much, Susie…” said Alice, “But if you ever feel like the campers are picking on you, you need to come to one of us and let US do the punishing.” She patted Susie’s shoulder.

Susie looked up, and then over to Alice, “Would you even DO anything? You’d just ignore me and tell me to bugger off or something, wouldn’t you?” Susie accused, pulling away from her.

Alice took her hands, “I fixed your hands, right? I didn’t have to...I could’ve just let them stay like that, but I didn’t want to.” She stood.

“Why didn’t you ‘want to’ leave me bleeding?” asked Susie, defensively pulling her knees to her chest.

“Because I care about you, Susie. And I want you to know that I do.”

Alice turned to the door and opened it up, “Dinner’s in an hour, I’d suggest you wash your hands. Don’t want any magic on your food.” And with that, she was gone.

Susie stared at the door, then at her hands, then at the door again...another tear welled in her eye...she looked down at her hands...and smiled gently. The first time she’d smiled in a while…

“...someone cares about me…”

Betsy

Out of all the campers in the year of 1938, none were better behaved than a miss Betsy Castillo. Betsy was always on time to meals, never spoke ill of other campers, had a decent amount of friends, and was generally and genuinely a nice girl to be around. What’s more, she was very smart; able to piece together several things about the two witches of the camp at the time, Susie and Alice. She’d even correctly guessed that a third witch was once there at the camp.

But Betsy did have her enemies, though they were few in number. The worst of which was named Robert LeBlanc. Robert said he had his reasons for hating her, but in truth? He was just a cynical boy who thought that no one deserved to be that happy. He would do small stuff, pinching her or trying to get her to hit him. But what was bad was the frequency of it. He was ALWAYS trying to get her mad at him, mad enough to do something bad.

Today was that day. And it would have a very bad effect on LeBlanc.

No one was sure WHY Betsy was that angry on the misty July morning. Maybe she’d gotten a message from home. Maybe she had gone through the break up of a friendship. Maybe she just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. But Betsy was just being a bit more snippy than usual. She trudged to the mess hall, followed by LeBlanc (a wolf, I should specify) who was currently trying a new tactic of messing with her.

LeBlanc would walk right up to her, and put a finger right t the back of her neck. When she would go to slap away what she thought was a bug, he would slap, tug, or pinch her hand. Now, being Betsy, she decided to try ignoring this behavior as she begrudgingly walked to the mess hall. He would eventually let up, or so she thought.

He didn’t. He even continued doing this when they got inside of the mess hall, in full view of the  counselors. “Robert…” the sound of Susie’s scolding tone came to Robert...he stopped for a moment. To at least let Betsy sit down. But Susie pressed on.

“Why are you doing that to Betsy?”

Robert sat sheepishly down. “Um…”

“Maybe with the time you COULD spend eating, you can think of an answer, because you are NOT getting into that line until you do.” She looked at him scornfully, “If you’re gonna mess with someone, you better pick up your standards around me, baby.” Susie tried to make it look like she was trying to one up the kid. In reality, Susie did actually care for Betsy and didn’t want some punk messing with her. But She couldn’t let them see.

Robert waited for a now grumbling Betsy to get back to the table. He sat silently on his hands. ‘Well,’ Betsy thought, looking over, ‘At least he’s not going to mess with me anymore today.’ Oh, how wrong she was…

While Betsy wasn’t looking, Robert got up and slowly walked towards her. He knew exactly what to do to get her to snap. He walked right up behind her, took her french braid in his hair, and gave a sharp, rough tug.

“AGH!” Betsy grabbed at her hair, and turned around...she didn’t hesitate, acting on instinct...she put her hand out, “LEAVE ME ALONE!”

Robert leBlanc went flying from one end of the mess hall to the other and out the door. She hadn’t even made contact with him, and he flew. The kids all looked to Betsy, who had just demonstrated...telekinetic powers? After all, she sent a kid flying...and though it was an active movement, meaning she KNEW she could do it, she still did look just as scared as everyone else. One thought raced through her mind.

‘....did I just do that in front of a camp counselor?’

Susie, instead of being angry...laughed. Hard, really hard. Almost doubling over. “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! THAT REALLY SHOWED HIM!!!” She said, looking over to Betsy and walking to her, “You are a RIOT!!!! Oh my GOSH, that’s too FUNNY!” She playfully hit Betsy, patting her shoulder. “Come on, you’re coming with me, we gotta show this to Alice…”

Days passed, and no one saw Betsy. Had the counselors sent her home? Had they not done anything? Did they just kill her? No one had seen the usually active betsy for THREE WHOLE DAYS...and Robert LeBlanc was STILL afraid of her. For a day or so, everyone thought that Betsy had been killed.