Freya
"Why Freya, darling, these look great so far." Aunt Zelda praises as she looks over my costumes the next morning. I smile at her. "Thank you. They aren't quite done yet, but they are off to a good start. Besides, I owe it all to your nephew. He's the one who kept me calm and motivated." I tell her. "Yes, yes. I'll thank him for his sexual encouragements in the afternoon. Keep up the good work." Zelda says as she walks away.
"Oh no! Not like that! Wait! Aunt Zelda!" I call after her. She just shakes her head and walks away. I sigh and gather up all of the costumes and head towards the church. The wings that I had started making for Ambrose? Turns out they were for Nick. I didn't realize until I had heard Ambrose practicing him lines last night. Luckily, both men are quite muscular with broad shoulders, so it won't be too bad of a fix.
"Am I saying it right?" Dorcas asks as she recites one of her lines in Latin. "Not remotely." Aunt Zelda says. I try not to laugh as Dorcas while I go back to gluing and stitching individual feathers onto the makeshift wings.
"Do you even know what it means?" Aunt Zelda asks. Dorcas slowly shakes her head. "It means 'I curse the False God! And submit my fealty to you, Dark Lord." Aunt Zelda says dramatically as she throws down her script, acting as if she was about to win some type of award. She goes onto say her next line when she croaks. Literally. That's the noise she makes. She starts to gag and make croaking noises. She turns around and throws something up into her hand.
"Which one of you did this." Aunt Zelda asks as she turns around. I gasp in shock when there's a frog sitting in Zelda's hands. Talk about having a frog in your throat. "Not us. That familiar belongs to a colleague of yous." Prudence explains with a wicked smile. Aunt Zelda huffs and storms out of the church.
"Hey, Freya. I was wondering if you could help me out?" Dorcas asks as she walks over to me. I look up from the feather I'm working on and smile at her. "Of course, what's up?" I ask. She looks around before sitting next to me. "Listen. I know I'm no actress. But can you do me a favor and sew a good luck charm into the hem of my costume?" She asks.
"Of course, Dorcas. Anything to help you out." I say with a smile. "Thank Freya. Also," She comes closer and whispers the next part. "Do you think you can add a little something into the charm to improve my acting?" She asks. I sit back. "Sure." I tell her. I mean it. It will not only help her, but it will make watching the show far less painful.
Dorcas thanks me and walks away with a smile on her face. I go back to sewing when I accidentally slip and stab my thumb with the needle. I pull my finger back and gasp out in pain. I never stab myself. I'm always way more careful than that. I look down at my thumb and I see something strange. The blood is black. I feel myself start to freak out. I'm no doctor, but I know that this isn't normal. I look again and notice that the blood is back to its normal red color.
Fuck. Something's wrong with me.
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Freya
The rest of the day was pretty normal. After everyone had had their dinner and went to bed, I told Ambrose that I had to brew a special potion to give to Dorcas. I had already stitched the charm into her dress, but if I was going to make her acting good.... it would take far more than a few herbs in a hem.
The Spellman house has everything. It wasn't hard to find the recipe or any of the ingredients. The water on the stove was starting to boil as I crushed up some ingredients in a small cauldron. All of a sudden I smelled something burning. I turned back to the stove to see that the water was suddenly overflowing. I quickly turned off the burner and pulled the pot away. There's no way that the burner heated up that quickly. I held my hand over it, it was barely enough to get my hand warm.
The burning smell grows stronger so I whip around to see if any of my ingredients had accidentally sparked or had gone rotten. But when I turn around, I see something that almost makes me vomit. Standing a few feet in front of me, in the middle of the kitchen... is the Dark Lord.
"Dark Lord!" I cry out as I drop to my knees. Oh he's here to kill me. I've done something wrong. What did I do? I'm shaking. Badly. "Rise Child." He growls. I yelp and slowly rise to my feet. Well this explains the sudden heat and burning smell I guess.
"Dark Lord t-to what pleasure do I owe this visit?" I ask. Can't help but notice the shakiness in my voice. "It is your time. I'm calling on you to do my bidding." He growls. I start to shake more. He's going to make me kill someone. I can't do that. I don't even like killing flies. I can't find my voice so I just nod.
"You will add this to the concoction you have made." He hisses as his hoof slides a dried up flower across the table. "And you will give it to the girl." He adds. I look down at the flower and then back up at him. "You want me to kill Dorcas?" I ask. Tears in my eyes.
"No, child. Do as you're told. No more questions." He tells me. I nod. "I'll do it, Dark Lord." I tell him. "Good. You must." He says before he vanishes into thin air. I swear it happens so quickly that I have to remind myself that it had really happened. I take one deep breath before sprinting upstairs and launching myself onto Ambrose.
"Freya? What's wrong? You look as if you've seen a ghost." Ambrose jokes as he rolls over to meet my gaze. "Not a ghost. The Dark Lord." I tell him. His eyes widen and he sits up. "Had he tasked you? Are you okay? What does he want?" He asks as I grab his hand and pull him all the way down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"This. I was making a potion for Dorcas to help her for the show when he appeared. He gave me this. Told me to put it in the potion and give it to Dorcas. Ambrose, I don't want to kill her! I was hoping you could tell me what this is." I say as I push the dried flower towards him. He picks it up and inspects it carefully.
"In all my years, I've never seen anything like this before." He says. "What do I do?" I ask him as tears well up in my eyes. "We have to make that potion." He says as he turns to the stove and turns the burner back on, boiling the water once more.
"Ambrose, what if it kills her?" I ask. He sighs. "Then it is the Dark Lord's will. You can't deny him his request, Frey. If you refuse to do this, he'll kill you. Listen to me, we aren't going to tell anyone about this okay? This is just between the two of us and the Dark Lord. Whatever happens when you give this to Dorcas is completely out of our hands." He says as he goes to crush more ingredients.
"Okay." I say wiping the tears away from my eyes. "Freya?" I look up at him. He looks scared. "I love you." "I love you too."