day 6 of @hellcheerweek || paranormal || witch!chrissy
Chrissy Cunningham has spent years under her mother’s thumb, suppressing her magical powers for the sake of appearances. While witches are not unheard of in their world, they are seen as products of the devil among families like the Cunninghams.
But Chrissy is 18 now and she wants to explore her identity–her real identity. At the same time, she resolves to embrace something else about herself she’s denied for too long–her feelings for Eddie Munson, the boy brimming with frenzied energy and wild passion who stirs something in her she can’t name. She’d always noticed him, but when she went to him for help a few months back, it bloomed into something all-consuming.
She’d truly thought she was losing her mind, that maybe her parents had been right all along that the devil was working through her and he was finally ready to make her his puppet.
But Eddie knew exactly what was going on. Witches come into their power once they are of age whether they choose it or not; if they reject their innate power, it only hurts the witch herself, the power festering inside them until it turns rotten. She’d panicked at that revelation, yet he’d talked her through it, keeping his voice low and steady, a firm hand at her shoulder when she leaned in closer.
He’d confessed something someone in his position normally never would to someone in Chrissy’s: his mother had been a witch. He didn’t inherit her powers, but he spent a lot of time watching her and listening to her stories, and he had deep respect for the magical arts.
It was enough to convince Chrissy she could embrace this part of herself. Since then, she’d created an altar easily hidden in her closet she’d been using when her parents weren’t around, and meeting with Eddie once a week at the picnic table to borrow books from his mom’s collection he still kept locked up tight in his bedroom.
One night when she is practicing enchantments at her altar, she gets distracted thinking of the intoxicating way the sun hits Eddie’s face in mid-afternoon in their clearing and the elixir she was mixing turns a smoking crimson-red instead of the intended smooth lavender. Cursing under her breath, she dumps it out and starts anew, thinking little of her mistake beyond her brief frustration.
The next morning, she finds a note from Eddie in her locker, requesting she meet him in the clearing today, days ahead of their usual meetup.
When she reaches the clearing, he is waiting, looking uncharacteristically nervous and clutching a beautiful emerald green silk pouch in one hand.
He presents it to her as a gift, and one by one shows her the crystals inside that used to be his mothers’.
There is aquamarine– “Mom said this one helps balance out your emotions, helps you communicate better. So you can be honest about your feelings”–then a relatively rare red aventurine pyramid crystal that sits heavy in Eddie’s palm as he explains it–“This one is for energy and, you know, vitality. Mom always said I had too much of that so she kept it locked up away from me. I think it’s also supposed to, like, boost confidence, which can help when you’re still learning and figuring out your practice. And, uh, it can also help, um. It can stimulate your um.. desire”–he averts his eyes to his feet at that word, spoken clumsily in a way he rarely is with her–“The green jade is said to protect the wearer from harm and danger. I thought with the way your parents are about magic.. it, um, couldn’t hurt. We’ve gotta keep you safe until you graduate and can get out of that house, Cunningham,” he is back to his usual self now with his sly tone and wink.
He hesitates before pulling the last crystal from the pouch to hold between them, and Chrissy lets out a soundless gasp when she sees the raw rose quartz, so pale it might look white under certain light. Everyone knows what rose quartz represents.
After only a moment of stillness, Eddie reaches for Chrissy’s hand, prompting her to look up and meet his gaze.
“My mom always told me to save this one for my love. So, here it is.”
It takes her a moment of staring searchingly into his soft eyes to process his meaning.
She hadn’t realized until this moment that particular way he looked at her–it was longing.
It matched her longing.
She kisses him giddily, squeals into his mouth when he wraps his arms around her waist and lifts her off her feet.
Between more kisses, they plan to meet in the parking lot after the last bell.
She shivers thinking about being alone with him at his trailer as she walks on light feet back to school. But as the afternoon wears on, something nags at her. Something feels off.
It’s in her last class of the day when her botched spell from the night before comes back to her. She runs the details in her mind over and over until she can’t deny what seems apparent now that she thinks of the intention behind the spell–to bind and connect–and the way Eddie was at the center of her thoughts as it was cast.
It was a love spell. She’d accidentally bewitched Eddie Munson into loving her just as she’d wanted him to.
Ashamed and distraught, she sneaks out of school without Eddie spotting her and once her parents are asleep, she tearily breaks the spell.
The next day, Chrissy pushes her shoulders back and marches into the drama room to return Eddie’s mother’s crystals, knowing he would be setting up his table for that night’s D&D campaign.
She braces herself for his anger, for the confusion and betrayal now that the spell had lifted and he would realize what she’d done.
But he simply looks sad, and small. He asks where she was yesterday, tells her he’d waited.
She’s caught off guard and blurts out the truth about the spell, to which he only appears puzzled.
“Chrissy, you didn’t put a love spell on me. I can recognize a love spell.”
“But–I did something.”
Eddie appears thoughtful, sets down the miniatures he’d been fiddling with. “I did feel something that night. But it was like…clarity, I guess. I’d already been thinking about you, like I always do, and it was like a lightbulb turning on, or clouds parting or something. I just knew I was going to tell you the truth. That I wasn’t scared anymore.”
Eyebrows furrowed, Chrissy tries to reconcile that with what she understood of her own magic. She pulled the truth out of him. Lowered inhibitions, maybe? She’ll have to do some more reading tonight. In the meantime, what he’s saying must mean–
“You meant what you said yesterday? How you feel about me?”
He smiles fondly and tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. She shivers at the intimacy of it as they sway closer together. Their lips are just nearly touching when he whispers, “It’s always been you, Chrissy.”
And when he kisses her, it feels like magic.
