Wiccan: Aisling's Journey

Chapter 2

         In Taylor’s mind, thousands of thoughts flew by at once, as he slowly tried to piece together what had just happened. However, it all came back to one thing.

          “You are a witch,” he accused in loud voice.

         Aisling winced at the accusation and looked back at him, eyes wide with sudden terror and whispered, “You don’t have to inform the entire library, do you?”

         Taylor took a good look at her. Her brown eyes, which were so hard to read a moment ago, were the picture of fear, and her round face was all of a sudden very pale. She had no color in her cheeks, and her blonde hair falling around her shoulders only served to make her look even more terrified. Then he glanced around, and noted with some relief that no one had hear his big mouth.

          “Sorry,” he quietly, this time, “but you admit it, don’t you? You’re a witch?”

         Aisling sighed; she knew where this was headed. If she admitted it fully to him, he would become afraid of her and possibly even spread the news, and then they would never be able to work together; but if she didn’t admit it, he wouldn’t trust her and they still wouldn’t be able to work together. Why did this happen? And who had just tried to drown Taylor?

         Aisling felt trapped and cornered. He would never believe her if she admitted to being a Wiccan but denied trying to drown him. This was one of the many dangers of exposing herself to others. A voice in her head was chanting over and over again, your parents…, but she didn’t want to think about them. Not now. Not ever. It hurt way too much.

         Looking up, she saw that Taylor was starting to grow impatient with her silence. So finally she said in a small voice, “Can we get out of here?”

         Taylor was annoyed and angry. She had tried to drown him, wouldn’t confirm what he already knew to be true, and now she wanted to leave? He was about to order her to tell him the truth right there and then, when he realized she had already started gathering up her things.

         He sighed loudly, his annoyance showing flamboyantly, and grabbed the books he planned to take out. “Fine, let’s go.”

         Out in the car, Aisling sighed, turned to Taylor as he got in and said, “Not that I want it going around school, but yes I suppose I am a witch as you put it. However it’s not what you think it is.” Finishing, she realized he was looking at her suspiciously out of the corner of his eye, while watching the road with the other, and sighed, “I knew this was going to be a problem.”

          “Of course it’s a problem!” Taylor exclaimed. By now he was halfway to Aisling’s aunt’s bed and breakfast. “You almost killed me in there! And what do you mean it’s not what I think it is? Seems to me it’s exactly what I think it is! Hex spells! Trying to harm me! You probably even started that fire in Mr. Haese’s classroom! You think there’s no harm in that! I thought being paired with the new girl was bad enough! Now I’m paired with a hex casting witch, hell bent on destroying me! This is perfect!” Taylor had completely exploded and Aisling knew instinctively it would be better to just let him rant then try to correct him. “No wonder the Puritans burned your kind at the stake!”

         The tears had welled up in Aisling’s eyes and she had turned away to look out the window and hide. As she listened to the accusations, she saw her aunt’s house pull into view. It was a Victorian style bed and breakfast with a wrap-around porch. With its three stories and the promise of new faces and total strangers, it was just the sanctuary she had been looking for all her life, especially after…

          “HEY, I’m talking to you, are you even listening to me?” Taylor yelled at her.
Aisling bit her lip and looked at him, tears still brimming her eyelids, making her eyes shine. Taylor felt his anger disappear as he looked at her, realizing that he had gone way too far this time.

          “I’m just going to go in now,” she said fearing to say anything and yet wanting to defend herself. With that she jumped out of the mustang, which was still moving at the time, slipped, landed on her side, got up and ran into the house; her things still inside the car.

         Taylor sat there, staring at the house in front of him. He was confused as anything by this time and this just made it worse. Now she probably wouldn’t even talk to him, and they had a project to do together. Sighing he put his car in gear and roared into town toward his own house. Hopefully Bailey would be home, she would know what to do.

         Aisling collapsed on her bed and stared up at the ceiling in her attic room. The glow in the dark stars, moons, and suns on her ceiling seemed to be swirling as she thought of the day’s events and what tomorrow was going to be like. She couldn’t see Taylor possibly comprehending anything that went on in her life before she moved here and there was no way she could tell him about her family’s true history. It would destroy any hope of finishing this project together. That is, if he was even going to continue to be her partner. He’ll probably go to Mr. Haese on Monday and ask to be reassigned. She was just going to have to talk to him tomorrow. The last thing that she would ever want to do, and she was going to have to do it on the school’s in-service day. Well, she might as well at least get a good nights sleep. With that she snapped her fingers and all the candles in the room went out.

         Taylor stalked his sister’s door. He wasn’t exactly sure how to handle this. When he’d seen her light on when he drove up to the house, he was relieved, until he thought about how crazy he was going to sound. That left him here, pacing quietly in front of his sister’s door.

          “Will you stop it? You’re going to wear a hole in the floor in front of my room,” Bailey cried, from inside her domain.

         Taylor stepped up to the pronounced door and opened it. “How’d you know I was out here?”

          “ME? I could hear you coming all the way down the hall. You’re muttering under your breath, Taylor. I’d be deaf if I could hear that,” she replied promptly.

         Taylor sighed and stepped into his sister’s room. He looked around, glancing past the ancient desk, cluttered with books, the equally ancient but carved with hearts bookcase, and went over to sit down on the bed. This bed had a canopy, with tie-dyed curtains, and a match bedspread and sheets. Taylor made himself comfortable.

         Bailey looked over at her twin from where she was seated at her desk, put her schoolwork down, and turned in her seat. “You have my full attention. What’s up?”

          “It’s going to sound really crazy,” he announced, looking at her worriedly.

          “Not as crazy as pacing outside my door like some sort of stalker,” Bailey retorted, then seeing that her brother was still worried, she continued, “trust me, Taylor, I’m not going to laugh.”

         Suddenly, the whole thing just blurted out: “Aisling’s a witch and she’s the one who set my pants on fire and later in the library she tried to drown me, and then I yelled at her about it, after accusing her of being a witch and calling her ancestors demon coercing terrors, and now she’s all upset with me and she was crying and I get the feeling that she really didn’t mean to hurt me, and that I’m wrong for yelling at her, but it’s all kind of creepy and I don’t know how I’m going to work with her, but I don’t want to work with someone else…”

          “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. Take a breath, will you Taylor?” Bailey begged, looking over at her brother, amused. “Let’s go through this one step at a time. Slowly.”

         Taylor looked at her, shocked. She wasn’t laughing at him. Why wasn’t she laughing at him? “Bailey, I said Aisling’s a witch!” he stated, then stole a glance at his blonde haired sister. She was listening intently, no sigh of laughter anywhere. “And she’s the one that set my pants on fire and then tried to drown me in the library, but I don’t think she meant it because when I yelled at her later, she started crying, and didn’t say anything.”

         Bailey, who knew something was different about Aisling, smiled and said, “And what’s this about accusing witches of being demon coercing terrors? Maybe you hurt her feelings.”

         Taylor looked at Bailey, stunned, “Bailey, did you just hear me? I said Aisling’s a witch!!!” Taylor exclaimed.

         Bailey sighed, glanced over at her clock, which read 7 pm. “Taylor, I heard you. I just think that you’ve gotten stuck on the concept that she’s a witch and aren’t concentrating on your other instincts. You said you didn’t think she meant to hurt you. Maybe you should go with your instincts instead of your fear. Cause right now, you’re all fear. Taylor, there are so many things in this world that we can’t explain. Does that mean we should fear them? These things range from ESP and magic to woman’s intuition and medications that cure without our knowledge of how they work.

         You have to decide, Taylor, how you want to deal with this? You can choose to be afraid, or you can find out if there’s even anything to be afraid of. I think you know how I feel.

         Taylor sighed, and then looked at his sister. She had a point. But still...

          “Besides,” Bailey added, seeing her brother was struggling with this, “they don’t like the word witches anymore. Hollywood kind of gave the image a bad rep. Wicca is the correct term and it’s considered a philosophy/religion.”

         Taylor was surprised at his sister’s knowledge on a subject he knew so little about and looked at her strangely. “How do you know all this?”

          “It’s this new invention where they bind pieces of paper together and put information on them,” Bailey said sarcastically. Taylor gave her a dirty look as she continued, “I did a research paper on Wicca. It was fun learning about what other people believe. Trust me; you just have to have a little faith. My suggestion would be to at least talk to her,” Bailey replied.

          “And who says I want your advice?” Taylor asked pointedly.

          “Well, you’re in my room, aren’t you?” Bailey responded, grinning.

         Taylor smiled back, and sighed again. “I want to talk to her I just feel bad. I don’t know what got into me this afternoon, but I called her a lot of bad names, ones that you would probably hit me over the head for,” he worried.

          “Well, if it’ll make you feel better, I can hit you over the head now,” Bailey offered mischievously.

         Taylor stared at his sister, stuck out his tongue and walked over to her door. “No thanks, I think I’ll stick to mentally beating myself up. Thanks, Bailey, I appreciate it."

          “No prob,” she replied as he closed her door.

         Taylor slowly walked down the hall and into his own room. He headed over to his closet, stripped down to his boxers, and then collapsed on his bed. He lay awake for quite some time, thinking about what he was going to say to Aisling the next morning.