Ami

Chapter 11 The Witches

On the drive over to the Augustine Pride Lands from her apartment, Ami became nervous and jittery. She kept expecting something major to happen because it seemed that the impossible already had. Her worry over the changes that the last three days had brought left her expecting something else to add insult to injury of what used to be the calm existence of her life. She used to be just an ordinary college girl with her own personal, normal worries and now she was riding shot gun in a car that cost more than her college tuition, sitting next to one of the most mysteriously sexy men the world never know, on their way to see some witches. She fully expected for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to jump from the back seat with their wands in hand ready to vanquish the impending darkness Ami felt descended on her world.

The witches didn’t live in the main mansion but in a separate dwelling still yet located on the Pride Grounds. Their house, an A-frame house was a stark contrast from the Pride’s main houses’ Renaissance Revival structure. Upon passing the front security gates Ty was quick to notice the oddly structured house that was not there upon his first arrival to the Pride Lands.  It was not an ordinary home, with its triangular frame and slanting roof, it really did resemble the letter ‘A’ with a door and four big picture windows in the front of the structure.  Outside of the house flowers and plants grew around the property, plants of all shapes and sizes and quite possible different countries outlined the broader property line, making it seem as though an invisible border were being crossed into another world. Once they pulled up to the house Ty reached over taking Ami’s hand in his. “You know we don’t have to do this today.”

Accepting this small measure of comfort, Ami looked him steadily in the eyes, “No we have to do this now. I don’t know if I could go another day not knowing.” With that said, the two of them got out of the car and stepped up onto the porch just as an all white cat jumped from the windowsill and used the pet door to enter the house. When Ami brought up a balled fist to it give a knock on the door, a pleasantly plump older woman immediately opened it.

Against what old age literature would suggest the witches that worked for the Augustine Pride were not old haggish looking women with warts and missing teeth and stringy gray hair dressed in all black. Quite the opposite, the one that opened the door looked like someone’s grandmother, someone’s sweet, adoring, cookie baking grandmother that would smother anyone with their kisses and fill them with goodies.

The witch looked to be about seventy to eighty years of age with gray hair running down her back. She was dressed in a sweeping teal colored lounger that just reached her the top of her bare feet. “You two are late.” She said with an impatient grin.

“Excuse me,” Ami said as she turned to look at Ty who turned to look at her, the both of them expecting each other to confess to having called ahead to the witches.

“Well? Are you two going to stand there gapping at each other or are you going to come in.”

Flabbergasted Ami stammered, “Are you the…”

“Witches?” The witch finished. “Well of course I am, who else do you think is crazy enough to live in a house like this with today’s global warming?” Before either one of them could answer the witch went on, “Any who, you two should come in before we get any more gawkers about.”

Ty and Ami turned to look out at the empty yard. Ami only saw the deserted span of the property; she felt a tickle of some sense alerting her to something. Ty’s eyes detected that no one was milling about the area, nor lurking around any shadowed corner but Ty could feel eyes watching him and Ami, eyes that didn’t feel like such friendly neighbors.

The witch stepped aside letting the couple into her home, where she seated them on a sofa that gave off a cinnamon scented puff of air when they sat. Ami was the first to notice the cards neatly laying about the coffee table, “You do tarot reading as well?”