Huh? She kept reading, but the rest of the page was dull, a long list of the things people had complained about, presumably at the convening of the coven. Heh. She turned the next page, and found the juicy stuff. The title was:
For the removal of violent tendencies.
Then there was a list of ingredients (had to be there somewhere), and a set of instructions. Near the bottom were words that made no sense, written out super neatly.
Genhasssy trillsaborth bellacus bellacus
She knew something about this. Mum had said something a few months ago. She hadn’t listened, cos, like, that was gonna happen? What had it been? Oh, yeah, some monthly meeting with the girls. She’d said that poor Jeanette had been having troubles with her fella hitting her, so they were gonna get together once a month and talk about it. Talk about it, eh?
This was a bloody spell book! Of course, magic doesn’t exist, but if it did, this would be the real deal. Had mum said anything about Jeanette since? Yeah, she had, bloody hell, didn’t she say she was really happy cos her old man was like a lamb now and really quiet and peaceful? She did, definitely.
Scarlet shook her head, looking down at the book, smirking. Mum was battier than she’d thought. She was a witch, or at least, she thought she was. She turned another page and found more spells. A small one, tucked in beneath For the changing of hair colour, caught her eye.
In the event of doubt, for the finding of riches.
There were no ingredients listed, just a couple of lines of the weird language. She stood, clearing her throat, and blushed, then quickly read out the lines. Nothing happened. She checked around her, nodded, and tried again, slower this time. Still nothing. OK, this was stupid, no, this was worse than stupid, it was gullible as well. Mum had put a camera in here, there had to be a camera.
She rushed around the room, dragging the TV table out and checking behind it. The room was clean. She picked up the book and read one more time, pronouncing each word as clearly as she could. A cloud formed in the middle of the room. She dropped the book, stepping backward until her thighs caught against the settee, and sat down hard.
The cloud was white, small and puffy, and definitely there. It was a cloud from a story book, with nice clean edges and a flat bottom. It moved, coming closer to her. She shrieked and threw herself back, and it stopped. She took a deep breath, remembering what the book said, and tried to speak without her voice shaking too much.
‘Ok, right, find me some riches, please.’
Next instalment: Friday 11 October
