The Mirror

She was in the forest again, walking down the small path toward the cabin in the tree. Kindle couldn't help but feel intrigued with the cabin that she had never seen the inside of before. She walked quickly this time. Sure footed on the ground below. She had been down that same path so many times that she knew where the roots stuck out and where the path grew hard to see, but she knew where she was going. Kindle reached the tree and climbed the ladder to the cabin. "Libero vereor," (release fear) she said after opening the small chest outside the door. With her hands pointing toward the inside of the box, light shot from the tips of her fingers and filled the inside. She pushed out all of her fears and frustrations through her fingers and the light in the box grew brighter than it has ever been. After all of the light had gone and with the box closed she said, "evanesco." (vanish) after a few moments she reopened the chest the light was gone, inside was a large old fashioned key. With the key in her hand for the first time, Kindle opened the door to the cabin, her hands shook as she did so. As she pushed the door open Kindle took a deep breath and stepped inside. It was completely dark inside. Kindle closed her eyes and opened them a couple of times to adjust to the darkness. When she opened her eyes, this time she could see the dark figures of furniture in the room. In the middle of the room was a stand with a book on it. Kindle could feel herself smile. She had found the book. She began to walk to the book stand with the leather bound book on it; she couldn't wait to see what was written inside. What mysteries would she finally discover? Kindle reached out for the book and touched it. She could feel a tingling in her fingers and up her arm to her heart as she felt the smoothness of the cover. Before she could examine the book, she heard something behind her. As Kindle turned around she saw a woman at the door of the cabin. She was dressed in a purple robe and she didn't look surprised to see Kindle in the cabin.
"You made it!" The woman said calmly as she took a step toward Kindle.
"Who are you?" Kindle asked.
"Samantha," the woman answered, "and I have been waiting for you." She said with a smile on her face.
Kindle was shocked by the woman's reply and began to loose focus of the dream. The cabin began to slowly fade away and the last thing she saw was the woman reach out her hand to her. Kindle was too slow and Samantha's hand was out of reach.
Kindle's eyes opened wide in her bedroom and as she stared at the ceiling, she couldn't help but want to speak to Samantha again. The dream was so vivid it was like she was really there. She remembered the dream as if she had just lived it. Kindle jumped out of bed and without thinking grabbed a candle and rushed into the living room.
The mirror was propped up against the wall just where she left it. She picked it up and put it on the table with the candle. With the candle lit she closed her eyes and concentrated on the cabin with Samantha standing in the doorway. Kindle opened her eyes and stared at the candle just as she had done in her dream. As she stared at the candle she noticed a small movement in the mirror in front of her.
She broke her concentration for a second as she watched the cabin fade from the mirror. When she saw herself again she began to get excited. It was working. The mirror was a perfect window to her dream. Kindle closed her eyes again and tried to concentrate. She pushed the excitement from her body through her fingers imagining the white light she had put into the small chest outside the door of the cabin. When the feeling was gone from her body Kindle opened her eyes again and looked at the flame trying to ignore the mirror behind it. All of the sudden the flame lit up the cabin and Samantha was standing by the book.
"Samantha?" Kindle whispered. She waited for a response from the woman.
Samantha turned around slowly and Kindle could see her clearly for the first time. She was about the same height as Kindle and was about forty five years old with the same purple robe she had on earlier. "Yes, I am Samantha," the woman said. "What is your name?"
"Kindle," She answered as she watched Samantha's face, Kindle could see a smile come across Samantha's face. "What did you mean when you said that you have been waiting for me?" Kindle asked.
Samantha didn't answer; she just turned around and faced the book. With no hesitation she unhooked the leather strap holding the book closed and turned to a page in the middle of the book. Samantha motioned for Kindle to come closer and see what was written. Kindle walked over to Samantha and looked down at the page, it was in a different language and Kindle couldn't understand what it meant. There was a border around the page that resembled the border of the mirror. It had ornate markings and small print that looked like it was the same language as the writing in the book. Samantha and the book faded away as Kindle thought.
She found herself staring at the candle flame in sort of a daze. Kindle put out the candle and picked up the mirror to examine it again. She had never been able to see something in a mirror like that. Kindle never really new for sure if witchcraft was even real. Not in the since that spells make someone love you or people could tell the future from looking at the lines in your hands, she had just used the Wiccan tools that she had for personal meditation and calming exercises.
Going through the steps of a spell made what she was trying to accomplish real in her mind. It made it easier to envision the outcome of something and work toward that goal, rather than just say you were going to do something. Of course Kindle was drawn to the craft and had all kinds of books that she had read on the different subjects. But she had never tried any of the spells that were written in them. She felt like she needed to know exactly what she was doing before she tried to make something happen with a ritual.
But Kindle had just experienced something unexplainable. Unless she was willing to believe that she was crazy, Kindle had to rethink what she believed could be done with the power of the mind. She also had to wonder if there was evil spirits or ghosts on earth. What else would Samantha be if not a demon or a ghost? When Kindle saw Samantha in the mirror she couldn't put a finger on what she believed now. What else was possible? Kindle didn't even know how she knew what to do.
She had been in a daze from the dream and it felt like she had looked at something through a mirror a hundred times before, her body had just taken control. She looked at the clock and realized how late it was. Kindle decided that she would try and find someway to decipher the wording on the mirror tomorrow. She put the mirror down and went back to bed. Kindle lay there for a couple of minutes and continued thinking about what had just happened. Her heart was racing and it took a while for the excitement to calm out of her body. About an hour later, she finally fell asleep.

When her alarm went off the next morning it felt as if Kindle had just fallen asleep. She was still exhausted. That didn't stop her from jumping out of bed and quickly getting dressed. Her day at Ancient moon went by slower than she had ever remembered. When 5 o'clock finally rolled around Kindle was exhausted. But she didn't care, there was a cab waiting outside to take her to the library.
Once she arrived, Kindle looked through about ten books on different languages trying to make sure she wasn't getting the wrong one. She felt excited, scared and nervous all at the same time. She wanted to find out what the mirror said but she also had never experienced anything like the vision she had while using the mirror. It must be pretty powerful. When Kindle walked to the front desk she got nervous again. She felt as if everyone could see right through her to what was going on inside her mind.
Kindle felt different. She didn't know what to think anymore about what it actually meant to call herself a witch. She felt like a fraud until now. But because she didn't understand how she had actually accomplished the vision she didn't feel like she could believe it had been real.
After she was done checking out her book Kindle called a cab and waited impatiently outside ready to go. The cab finally came and when Kindle got home she locked the door and opened the book.
She worked on the translation for most of the evening. When she finally put everything together she stopped and took a deep breath before she read it, first in Latin.
"Quis eram quondam mei iam est vestri Id speculum est velut omnis ostium Protelo vos ut locus of potestas Unus nos ero in denique hora"
Then, Kindle looked down at her translation and read out loud.

"What was once mine now is yours
This mirror acts like other doors
To lead you to the place of power
One we will be in the final hour"

         Kindle didn't know what it was supposed to mean, but the translation of the mirror made her wonder if she had seen the vision because it was like a door. But what could the mirror be a door to? Was it her mind? Could it be that the mirror was enchanted?
Kindle wondered who had made the mirror, could it have been a Witch that passed it down from generation to generation in their family like Madeline had always taught her?
Kindle decided that she had to get her mind off of the mirror. She called Ann to see if she wanted to go out to the beach. Of course she wanted to go, so they called a cab and went.
"So, what is on your mind?" Ann asked as they sat on the sand. "You always want to come to the beach when you have something to think about."
"Something strange happened." Kindle started. She told Ann the story of the dream and the mirror.
Ann listened carefully to Kindle's story. Kindle could see that she was very interested in what had happened.
"I translated the writing on the mirror," Kindle explained. "But I don't know what it could mean."
"Do you remember what it said?" Ann asked.
"Not exactly, but I can show you when we get back to my apartment." Kindle was very excited with Ann's reaction to her story. Ann didn't change the subject or try and explain away what had happened by saying she was probably still asleep and the whole thing was a dream. Kindle felt comfortable sharing this experience with her because she knew if it turned out to be wrong or a dream Ann would let it go and not make a big deal about Kindle being wrong. But if it was real Kindle could tell that Ann wasn't scared to find out the truth. She wouldn't look at Kindle any different and she might even try and help Kindle find out the meaning.
The suddenly heard voices coming from down the beach. Ann and Kindle stood up to see who it was. Kindle could see people standing in a circle, they were wearing ankle length robs and someone in the middle of the circle was trying to start a fire.
Kindle knew exactly who it was. It was the only coven in town. They called themselves "Silver Star" and Kindle looked around the circle to find her adversaries. She was surprised to see that the women in the group were not all young like Lindsay and Clair. Kindle had always thought that the coven would consist of girls just like them and they would be in someone's basement trying to put curses on people they didn't like.
But the coven that stood a few feet from her looked completely different. There were some women in their late twenties or early thirties, and one woman was about fifty or sixty. She could tell that the older one was the High Priestess. All of the women looked very serious and knowledgeable about the ritual they were doing, one of the older women had finished drawing a circle around the other members of the coven.
As soon as Kindle's eyes met with Chair's, Kindle couldn't help but smile. She new that the girls could not step out of the circle until the spell was done. It looked like the group did everything by the book. And since Clair and Lindsay considered themselves 'real Witches" and Kindle fake, Kindle knew they would go by the rules.
"What are they doing?" Ann asked.
"I don't know what kind of spell they are doing." Kindle explained. "But now that they cast the circle, no one can leave unless the spell is done." Kindle remembered from her reading. Kindle began to doubt herself more and more as the spell went on. What if Clair and Lindsay knew more than she did because they were taught by the coven? Kindle knew that she didn't want to be in the same coven as those girls, but now she felt kind of jealous.
"Well then let's watch." Ann stated. "Maybe we can learn a thing or two about spells."
Kindle and Ann sat back down and watched the women go through the motions of the spell. So far everything the women did seemed to be the same as what Kindle had read in her books. They began reciting a poem. It sounded like they were conjuring strength to rid themselves of bad habits.
All of the women in the group were very concentrated on the spell, except for Clair and Lindsay. The girls couldn't keep their eyes off of Ann and Kindle. Kindle got great joy out of this.
With the experience that she had Kindle knew that she would never take what Lindsay and Clair said seriously. After all of the times they had gone into the store and spoke with Madeline about their coven meetings, Kindle could tell that they were just going through the steps and pretending. They didn't use the energy the other women were creating to help themselves at all.
Kindle had also always been worried that the spell wouldn't work, and she would have found that the thing she believed in was false. But after the vision in the mirror, Kindle was determined to try a spell. She wanted to try everything.
"It looks like they are almost done," Kindle started. "Let's go." She said as she stood up.
"Don't you want to wait and see what Lindsay and Clair have to say? They have been holding it in this whole time." Ann said with a smile.
"I don't want to give them the satisfaction." Kindle said when really she didn't want to create any more drama for herself. Kindle felt completely drained of energy. Her life had never really been this eventful.
They walked home from the beach talking about what they had seen. Ann had a lot of questions about the ritual. Kindle answered her to the best of her knowledge. When they got back to Kindle's apartment, Kindle showed Ann the mirror and the translation. About 2 am Kindle decided to call it a night. Ann went home to her apartment across the hall and Kindle went to bed.