Moon Witch

Compromise?

"After everything I worked for, you want me to hide? Where the hell have you been the last five years?" She's angry, hands flying wildly.

"I've been right here, Mags, and I love how passionate you've been about this, but you should really reconsider," He's practically begging her, even though he knows there's no negotiating.

"I fought so hard for this, Julien. I can't go into hiding. This is probably nothing anyway," She turns away from her potion to look at him. He's a mess. Has been all week, since he came back from the police station. He's even called into work the last two days.

"I know, I'm sorry. But with that weird guy with the gun hanging around and your phone blowing up, I really think you need to at least consider hiding," Julien runs a hand through his greasy hair. It stands up on end, so dirty it glistens in the light above the kitchen table.

"The man with the gun hasn't done anything yet, and if he didn't switch where he stands every day, I would have thought he was a Halloween decoration. And my phone is nothing. It's a little Halloween prank one of the Elders is pulling, it has to be. Now stop worrying so much and go shower," She turns back to her potion, an aphrodisiac she's been asked to brew for the neighbors in the house behind her. They're newlyweds, like her and Julien.

"I can't help but worry. The hunts could start up again. I could lose you. Your mom and sister could lose you. What would the Coven be without its star potion brewer?" She hears his chair scrape over the linoleum; hears his socked feet pad closer.

"I'm not going into hiding, Jule. We're not leaving the house anyway. We're going to pass out candy to trick or treaters like a normal couple, maybe watch a scary movie, and then go to bed. We have nothing to worry about," She stirs in a little cocoa powder for flavor, "Speaking of candy. You and I should go get some after I finish brewing this."

"You and I both know if we buy candy this early, it's not going to make it to Halloween. It never does, and then I'm left to run down to the corner store to get more at seven thirty the night of," He comes up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder.

"This year I can hold down the fort while you make the candy run," She turns the flame on the stove down a little, letting to boiling potion in her pot slow to a simmer.

"Why do I have to make the candy run?" Julien whines. Maggie laughs, her free hand moving to touch the side of his scruffy face.

"For two reasons: one, I don't want to. And two, because you told me not even two minutes ago that you want me to go into hiding," She turns the stove off completely and shakes Julien off so she can go to her cupboard for a bottle to put the potion in.

"Seeing as to you're not budging on the matter, I'm going to concede defeat and hand over the candy run duty to you," His lips curl up in a smile that doesn't quite touch his eyes. She notices this as she pours the newly brewed potion into the small vial in her hand. She sighs.

"If I hadn't been fighting for this for so long, I would go into hiding in a heartbeat. You know that, babe. But if I do it now, that means I have to forfeit everything," She corks the vial and seals it with a charm, muttering the words under her breath.

"I do know that. And the last thing I want is for you to lose this battle, but something isn't sitting right with me, Maggie," He leans over the pot, which still has quite a bit of aphrodisiac bubbling in the bottom, the purple liquid reeks of chocolate.

"It'll be fine, Julien. You'll see," She pockets the full vial in her smock before taking the four steps it takes to close the gap between them. She kisses his nose, "I'm going to run this over, and when I get back, we're going to get some candy." She leaves him then, his mind still reeling, full of a thousand bad feelings.