(song: noga erez - you're so done)
Phoebe found herself surrounded by pitch blackness with only one solitary light source; a floating lantern giving off a purple glow. She wore a long emerald cotton dress that pooled all around her up to several feet away. The ground beneath her bare toes felt like mud, slowly pulling her down inch by inch into its depths.
The realization that eventually she'd sink terrified her.
"Help!" she cried out as loud as her voice would carry.
"Phoebe," a gentle, female voice called her name.
Another lantern lit up, floating above the figure of a tall woman dressed in red. The woman's long dark hair reached her waist, masking her face. She reached her hands to the curtain of hair that kept her features hidden and slowly parted it to reveal herself.
Phoebe's heart pounded hard in her ribcage. The woman wasn't a stranger to her, she knew that face. She would recognize it anywhere.
"Mom?" Phoebe mumbled, surprised at first and then after processing the situation her voice grew louder. "Mom!"
"Phoebe!" Her mom called out with just as much desperation.
The two fought to move, but it was in vain. Their legs were too deeply embedded in the mud and the struggle only proved to pull them faster and farther. Her mother reached out her arm, trying to stretch her fingertips out towards her daughter. Phoebe mirrored her mother's action, wanting their fingers to at least touch. If she could hold her hand at least they'd be together, and she'd know that finally they were reunited. But their fingers were just out of reach.
"A crescent. A fork. A Mountain. A Sign!" Her mother called out.
The mud climbed up their torsos. Phoebe's scream became trapped in her throat. Painful coldness from the mud stung every muscle in her body.
"A crescent! A fork! A Mountain! A Sign!" Her mother screamed out before the mud poured into her mouth and eyes, swallowing her whole being.
Phoebe bolted up from her bed screaming.
It was only a dream, but dreams weren't supposed to hurt. Her body still ached all over with an icy coolness to her skin.
Phoebe took a moment to calm down and regain her senses. She had expected to find herself in her own bed, but that was not the case. Xavier and Phoebe had reached the cabin by the lake, and promptly she went into the master bedroom and locked herself in for the night. She didn't bother to be a good host or show him where anything was. All she wanted to do was create a safe space and sleep.
The bedroom smelled damp and dusty. Stacks of paint cans and plastic tarps were in the corner. There was a bookshelf against the wall with several books wrapped in plastic to protect them from moisture damage. She could see the potential in the cabin. It had great bones, but her mother had disappeared before she could finish working on it.
A tap against the door.
"You were screaming," Xavier stated from behind the locked door. "Do you want me to come in?"
"No!" Phoebe shouted. She looked down at herself. She had on a t-shirt she found in one of the drawers. The fabric was thin and left little to the imagination. Quickly, she fumbled around the room to collect her clothes and put them on. "I'm not dressed!"
"Is that supposed to make me not want to come in?" Xavier's voice dripped with amusement.
"Funny," she said flatly. It wasn't funny. "The door is locked anyway, so even if you wanted to come in, you can't."
"Even if it weren't locked, I'd only enter if you asked me to. I'm a gentleman like that." Xavier had the kind of tone that made it hard to tell if he was joking, flirting, or being serious. Maybe it was all three at once.
Phoebe managed to finish dressing and unlocked the door. She preferred talking to his face instead of the paint-chipped master bedroom door.
Xavier wore just a towel around his waist and held out a tacky yellow mug of coffee towards her. His bare chest was fit, well defined, and marked with several strange tattoos that complimented his physique.
Her cheeks flushed. She tried to not let it show how much seeing him shirtless affected her. "Why are you naked?"
"I'm not naked, I have a towel," he said, smiling faintly.
She fought back a small smile. Phoebe remembered being annoyed by Xavier's habit of turning everything into a joke when they were in high school, but she found his attitude to make her feel more at ease.
"You know what I mean." Phoebe tried to pretend to be irritated with him, in spite of accepting the coffee he offered.
He tilted his head in thought. "You screamed, so I rushed out of the shower."
"And as you ran to my aid you decided to grab me a cup of coffee?" Phoebe kept up the act, but she was a terrible actress. She broke out a full-on grin.
"There's little that can't be solved with a good cup of coffee," he explained, his eyes staying completely fixed on hers.
She took a small sip of coffee and hid her smile behind the rim of the mug. "Well, since you got the water working, I guess I better take a shower too."
Xavier braced his hands against the doorframe and leaned forward. "Want company?" He was as devious as ever.
Phoebe's stomach did a backflip. Xavier may have been hot, but she couldn't forget what happened the night before. There was so much she didn't know about him. She needed to keep her head straight until she had more information.
"No. Move and take this mug," she commanded.
"Yes, m'lady," Xavier turned, bowed his head, reclaimed the coffee, and motioned with one arm towards the bathroom.
Phoebe made sure to lock herself in the bathroom, just in case. She twisted her hair up into a bun atop her head and raised her voice loud enough for Xavier to hear her. "What about food? Did you find any in the cabinets?"
"Nothing that wasn't long expired. Even the coffee might be questionable. But we can find food outside," he answered.
"What do you mean?"
"Witches and Warlocks are connected to the earth where normal humans are disconnected from it. We understand how to forage plant life and capture wildlife," he explained.
She had almost forgotten that witches and warlocks were real. Phoebe was still digesting that information. She turned on the faucet and switched the water flow to the showerhead. "We're not going to capture and kill anything for breakfast, Xavier!"
"So foraging it is." He sounded amused. "You finish your shower, leave breakfast to me."
It felt weirdly intimate for her to shower while Xavier made breakfast. She never lived with Juan, and whenever they slept over at one another's place he never made breakfast for her. It made her question why she stayed with him for so long.
The water stayed warm and never turned hot. After fifteen minutes of washing her body, she decided that she was clean enough. She dried and dressed, then cracked open the bathroom door to stare out into the main room of the cabin. Most of the furniture was covered with sheets, and the wood floor was dull and dusty. To the left of that room were the kitchen and a freshly wiped table to eat at. Xavier had left her coffee mug there with a sheet of paper over the top of it.
Phoebe sat at the table and wrapped her fingers against the mug. It was cold, but she drank it anyway. Staring at the state of the cabin made her uncomfortable. A tall sheet-covered coat stand looked frighteningly humanoid in shape. She felt surrounded by ghosts. The ghosts that bothered her the most were her own memories.
Everywhere she looked she could remember an action her mother performed in the spot. By the counter, Phoebe could remember her mother dancing to Frank Sinatra music on the record player. By the front door, she could remember her mother carrying in heavy cans of paint and smiling at her.
She missed her mother more than anything else in the world.
The front door swung open.
"I return with a bountiful harvest!" Xavier exclaimed from the doorway. He had a kitchen towel in his arms filled with wild blackberries. He closed the door behind him with his foot and dumped the towel on the center of the kitchen table.
Phoebe popped one of the blackberries into her mouth. It was deliciously sweet. "I didn't know there were so many blackberry bushes around the house."
"That's not the only thing I found outside," he said. He dug out from his pocket various leaves and petals. "There are plants that are out of season bearing fruit and flowers around the house, this is evidence of a witch's cabin. Whoever your relative was, must have been a witch, that's why she gave the house to your mom. And every witch's home has a secret room. That room will be the key to awakening your power. . ."
Author's Note: Thank you for reading this chapter! If you're enjoying the story, please consider leaving a comment.