Welcome to Gaia! ::

A loud, melodic sound interrupted the reverie of torment Belladonna’s mind had created and the witch rose to a half-sit on her bed. Next to her on the bedside table lay her eyephone, which rang with a loud and pretty song. The witch screwed up her face as she leaned over and looked at the caller ID, but her confusion quickly turned to a mingling of agitation and morbid curiosity.
Her older sister Hemlock was calling.
There were very few things Hemlock called over. Actually, Belladonna wasn’t sure if Hemlock had ever called. Usually it was her Mother who did the calling, or her eldest sister Delphinium, when Mother was… Otherwise indisposed. Never Papa and never Hemlock.
It must have been serious.

”Hello?” Belladonna answered as politely as possible. Though she had reached across the bed for the phone, she still propped herself up on her elbows. Hopefully the conversation would be short.
“Hello! Hello! You sound like you’re from London, mate!” A familiar female voice replied with an affected British accent.
”You don’t even know what London is like.” Belladonna quickly retorted as she narrowed her eyebrows. Typical Hemlock to start a conversation with a jab at the youngest sister.
“Do too, you big sour-puss. I’ve been there. Great scene, really.” Hemlock laughed at this, her usually lower toned voice high as she cackled. Belladonna rolled her eyes and flopped back onto her back to stare up at the ceiling.
”It’s lovely to hear from you, Hemlock.”
“You’re always so polite. Thank you Miss Belladonna. It’s lovely that you answered your phone.”
A moment of silence stretched between them, Belladonna unsure as to what the call was about.
“Anyways, I didn’t call to pick a fight. Shocking, but true.” Hemlock finally started again, her voice returned to its lower key. She still sounded feminine, but it was certainly not the high pitched thing Belladonna took. It was simply one of the things that separated her from her sisters. Delphinium’s voice was low too, but more in a sultry way. The two younger girls joked that it wasn’t sultry so much as sullen, just like her. But Hemlock’s was just low in an attempt to be gruff, like the attitude she wanted to portray.
”Then might I politely inquire as to why you did call?” Belladonna asked as she fiddled with the end of Binx’s tail. He flicked it out of her grasp, but she merely changed her fingers to a scratch for Lanna.
“I called to see how you were doing.”
As much as Belladonna wanted to believe Hemlock was just joking with her, the older girl had said it with such tenderness that the younger witch didn’t have the heart to say anything about it.
She at least managed to squeak out a ”You did?” .
“Yeah. You were in your dorm room for what? Two months?” Three. “And then home for another month?” Another month and a half. Two if you count the first month I was home and then the week I went back to Amityville, only to come back home. Hecate, she’d missed so much school. “I know things have been difficult for you. So I just, yanno, wanted to see if you needed someone to talk to about them.”

Was this… Was this real life?
What this really happening?
What do?!

”Y-yeah. Things have been really difficult. But you… You don’t really want to hear about all that.” The bitterness managed to be kept from Belladonna’s voice, but she couldn’t help but purse her lips. When she had been at home, no one had wanted to hear of the things that had happened. No one had asked her why she had returned home or why she had sequestered herself in her dorm room for so long before that. It was like they didn’t care, or they knew something the youngest witch didn’t.
“Well, maybe I do.”
Not convincing.
”Why didn’t you ask me when I was home? Why now?”
A pause. Belladonna could almost see Hemlock standing (she always stood when on the phone), one boot digging sheepishly into the ground.
“It was weird. Mom and Pop didn’t want to hear it. They were mad at you. Delphie was mad. I was kind of neutral.” (Another difference. Delphinium called them ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’, whereas Belladonna got a mix with ‘Mother’ and ‘Papa’.)
”Delphie is always mad.” The witch nearly spat out the nickname Hemlock affectionately coined for the eldest sister. Belladonna could hardly stand it. Delphinium was a cruel, cold creature that should only be called by the poisonous name she had been given.
“At least at you.” Another laugh from Hemlock. The two older sisters had always enjoyed a fairly peaceful relationship. They were closer in age and had enjoyed a happy existence until Belladonna had come along. At least, that was what Delphinium had always claimed. Before Belladonna, they had been the light in their parent’s eyes. They had been the only things they cared about. But when the youngest witch was born, they poured their hopes into her, instead. When she was overly friendly in grammar school and brought home a new pet each day and tended to giggle rather than cackle, they still didn’t retract their hope.
She was still destined to be the best witch of the three.
The youngest always was.

Delphinium had not been happy over that. She had worked too hard to be cast aside, and while their parents loved each of their children in a separate and full manner, Delphinium was not expected to succeed on her own. She was to be given the family business. Belladonna was to make her own path.
To say it had caused some sisterly rivalry was to put it mildly.
It had, in utter honesty, caused a great deal of sisterly abuse. With parents who turned a blind eye to most things their daughters did, they neither stopped Delphinium’s harsh treatment of Belladonna nor did they encourage sisterly affections.
And Hemlock had been the devil’s advocate of it all. She hopped from side to side and poked and prodded until both eldest and youngest sisters were ready to fight for blood. She was no threat to Delphinium, as middle children are oft forgotten, but she was also no friend to Belladonna.
The fact that she was offering to listen was… Suspicious to say the least.

”Is Delphinium on the other line? Is she listening?” Belladonna bolted up in her bed, Lanna tucked against her hip as she flailed her free hand angrily. ”I bet you’ve got me on speaker and she’s just waiting for me to say something weak so she can criticize me!”
“No, Bellsie. It’s just me. I’m at my spot. There’s no one around for miles.”
The use of Hemlock’s strange, affectionate name for Belladonna startled her into listening and when she mentioned ‘the spot’, the youngest witch felt downright terrible over being suspicious. When the girls were younger, their Papa had taught them to fly. (Mother was often inebriated just enough to not be allowed to handle a broomstick.) He had taught them mechanics, taught them the rules of the sky and also implored each of them to use flying not merely as a means of transportation. Delphinium had dismissed the idea of the entire practice, being much too methodical and inclined to potions to bother with it. Hemlock had taken to the practice, but she still viewed it as a means to an end, particularly a way to get places or show her prowess. Only Belladonna had taken what her Papa had said to heart, but she still felt as though he meant something else than as just a good way to clear one’s mind.
In any regard, Hemlock had proposed the idea that each girl find a special spot somewhere just for them. A spot where the other two were off limits at all times. No matter what. The three sisters all eagerly agreed, but both Delphinium and Belladonna had trouble finding suitable spots. Delphinium wanted to claim the Divine’s library, but she could access that through stairs so it didn’t count. Belladonna was too young to really grasp the idea of a proper, private spot so it was only Hemlock who succeeded in the venture.
The spot she had chosen was a cliff that overlooked a vast pumpkin patch. The cliff was high enough to be only reached by a determined climber or someone with the gift of flight.
So when she mentioned she was there, Belladonna knew she was being serious.

The youngest witch mumbled a small apology, which Hemlock scoffed at in a friendly manner.
“It’s alright. I figured you wouldn’t believe me right away anyways. We’ve not always been the best of friends.”
We’ve hardly even been sisters.
“It’s almost like we weren’t even sisters!” Intuition ran strong in the Divine family. “We hardly looked alike. Just the same color hair.”
Really, it had only been their Mother’s bright red hair that had shown who the girls’ heritage was. Delphinium was average in build and height with a perfectly nondescript length of curly red hair. Hemlock was wispy and thin, all bones and sharp edges with hacked off red hair that curled at the ends. And Belladonna was curvaceous in the extreme, with long hair.
”But we are.”
“Indeed.” A long pause where Belladonna reclined onto her back once more and Hemlock probably scratched at the ground with her boot. “So. Talk. Just you and me, Bellsie.”

Belladonna paused and bit her lip, hesitating for a moment.
But it was only a moment, for in the next breath she began a long stream of words that was essentially a geyser of feelings.
The youngest witch was sure to start at the beginning, with the fated field trip to the Mysterious Island where she had heard voices. She was not afraid to tell of the voice that sounded mockingly like Hemlock and had threatened her on various occasions. She also told of the male voice that had helped her, but had to double back and tell his story too because Hemlock hadn’t known of that. Belladonna told of her friends’ deaths, of her own death and of the eventual, easy return to Amityville that felt all wrong. Everything after that had just been off.
Next was the three months sequestered in her dorm room, where a few people had bothered to attempt to coax her out but had given up too quickly. The only thing that had extracted her was the promise of being able to start over with a new school year. The witch brightened in tone as she told her older sister of Savage’s Lava Pit and how only Belladonna and one other student had made it across and won the coveted teacher’s pin. The week after that had been nice, but it had been a short lived sort of good feeling. Belladonna quickly spiraled back down to her formerly depressed and fearful state. And Hemlock knew the next part where her parents had descended on her and forced her to return home.
Hemlock also knew of how awfully Delphinium had treated the girl, with the constant stream of complaints over her failure, her lack of personal strength and her general inability to properly handle stress. So Belladonna only briefly touched on this subject, but she also skipped over the part where Hemlock herself had often come to Belladonna’s defense. Anytime she was around, she would push herself in between Delphinium and Belladonna, or if that couldn’t happen, would at least shout loudest of all until they stopped their bickering. And while Hemlock never actually praised Belladonna, she at least wouldn’t stand for the put-down Delphinium attempted to enact.
Next was Belladonna’s brief return to Amityville where she flagrantly disobeyed her parent’s wishes (in a manner of speaking) and was promptly bundled back home. Hemlock paused the explanation to briefly congratulate her younger sister on her rebelliousness. To ‘participate’ in school, but merely a school function, was rather brilliant, as she put it.
After that were the few remaining weeks at home, then Belladonna’s final return to Amityville. The conversation got a little more interesting at this point as the younger witch explained her reunion with several friends, her introduction to new ones and even her adventures in taking a few classes. (She made Hemlock promise to tell Mother and Papa about the classes she had taken so that they would understand she really was trying.) But with these adventures, also came explanations. For Hemlock wasn’t aware of the Hunters or the threat they posed. And all that had to be explained in great depth, as well as what they had done to many of the students of Amityville. There was brief mention of the destruction of the Four Clans Islands and finally, Belladonna arrived at her most tumultuous topic.

Careful to properly phrase her words so that neither Mort nor Belladonna were portrayed in a negative light, the young witch told her sister of their time together. With a bright voice and fluttering hand gestures, Belladonna informed her of how very depressed he had been, how she had pulled him from that despair (at least momentarily) and how they had spent a wonderful day together. She then dropped to a less colorful tale of her Insanity driven dream and how Mort had also had one, but one that had forced him to take his own leave of the school.
Yet first, before he left, came the story of their passionate kisses and the Mama that had interrupted them.
Before Belladonna could even say anything else, Hemlock began laughing.
”Why are you laughing!? Its not funny!” Belladonna shouted into the phone, but Hemlock only kept on cackling.
“Oh Hecate, it’s HILARIOUS. You guys were cockblocked!”
Belladonna pouted for the remainder of her laughter, but finally she subsided enough to implore the witch to go on. She only interrupted Belladonna once more with her cackle, but was quiet after that.
Thankfully, there wasn’t much more to tell. Just how his Mama had been nice, but Belladonna was sure she didn’t approve of the witch. And how Mort had left. There was also the battle with the Hunter that Belladonna failed to mention for even brazen Hemlock would have gotten mad at Belladonna for foolishly engaging in such a thing.
“So, that’s it? That’s all your worries?” Hemlock finally asked that she accompanied with a low whistle after Belladonna had agreed. “Well then. Sounds like quite a ride.” The younger witch agreed again. “But it seems like you’ve pulled through ok.”
”Hemlock. I have missed five months of school. The majority of my friends are in the process of graduating to Year 3. I’m a full year behind.” Belladonna began in an indignant tone. Pulled through? Hardly! ”I have become a coward! I live in fear of my own death! I died once and could very well do it again, but what if next time I’m not so lucky! What if it’s for good?!”
“But that’s ok. Now you know.”
”Know what?!”
“What it’s like to be scared.”
That gave the girl a bit of pause.
“Look. We’re creatures of terror, of FEAR. We’re meant to scare humans. And didn’t you say Hunters are just glorified humans? Well, use your own fear. Turn it against them. You know what it’s like to die and that scares you. Right on. Show they what it’s like to die. Humans don’t get to respawn in a pumpkin patch like we do.”
Momentarily, Belladonna scrunched up her face in a pout. That wasn’t the bit of advice she had expected, but it wasn’t bad advice either. Just… Different.
”I don’t think I understand…”
“Think of like this, Bellsie. You know how Delphie always ends her fights with how she’s prettier than you or that huge boobs are stupid?”
It was an odd habit of Delphinium’s to be jealous of not only where their parents’ hopes were placed, but also physical appearance. “She only says those things because they scare her the most. That’s the first thing anyone sees when you stand next to her. You’re prettier than she is and so she thinks if she can make you think you’re not, then she wins.”
”I understand all that… but… How does that help me with what frightens me?”
“Because if you pretend like it doesn’t, then your enemy doesn’t know your weakness. They’ll think it’s your fondness for pink lace or something else that isn’t such a big deal.”
”Oh.” A long pause. ”That is the most sensible thing I have heard in days.”
At that, Hemlock laughed and Belladonna joined in.

It was such a simple concept that the younger witch was a little mad she hadn’t thought of it herself. But it really and truly was brilliant. A fantastic way to twist one’s own fears and use them in the way a real Halloweener should.
Belladonna profusely thanked her sister, but Hemlock only laughed it off.
“No problem, kiddo. Figured you could use a bit of a pick-me-up after all that. I’ve got to get going, but text me sometime this week and let me know when Lover Boy returns. I want to hear how that turns out.” She paused for a moment, then inserted a small, almost sheepish laugh. “I’m sure everything will turn out fine. He’d be a total moron not to choose you.”
Of all things, she had not expected this from her sister. So Belladonna was only able to mumble a small thank you and a colorful promise to keep her older sister in the proverbial loop of her life.
”Thank you so much for calling me, Hemlock.”
“Not a problem! Take to you soon, Bellsie!” The girl chimed and then the line was dead.

After such a long interim with no attention, Lanna quickly pressed her face into Belladonna’s side. But the witch only laid there with her phone pressed over her heart. The thing that had been bothering her, more than anything, was her need to have someone listen and tell her everything would be alright. Belladonna always focused on other people and their problems and oft forgot to take care of her own. But Hemlock knew. Hemlock called and let her talk it all out so now the younger witch felt free, light and, for the first time in weeks, clear headed.
In that moment, she resolved to never speak ill of Hemlock. She promised to get her a wonderfully fantastic gift come her next birthday, and perhaps even sew her a cool tattered cape come the colder months. Belladonna promised all these things and more, because she knew she now had an ally within her own family. After feeling an outcast to her own blood, Belladonna now belonged to something. It was small and strange, but still very, very good.
And that was a gift she wouldn’t trade for the world.