Winter Nights

Chapter 9 –

“…I have powers?” I asked confused trying to piece together the puzzle of what was truly happening before me.

Kaleb took a sip of his coffee before putting it down and looking me straight in the eye, “Yes, - I guess I should more so say that you’re a witch- they were awakened that day when you killed your father; that was all you. They have been silent since, but they need to be awakened for the task I’m made to do.”

“And when are you going to be telling me about that task?” I asked almost impatiently tapping my fork against my plate.

“I can’t just yet, not until your powers are awakened.”

“When is that going to happen? What do we need to do?” I asked feeling my phone vibrate inside the pocket of my jeans; I ignored it and stared at Kaleb expectantly hoping he would at least give me some sort of hint at what he needed to do.

“We have to take a trip to visit your Grandmother; she’s a witch herself and knows a few others who have to do a ritual to awaken your powers.” He told me, placing his father’s notebook in front of me.

Febuary 16th 1933,

I found Gareth finally, he told me about the rituals. A new witch has been found and now we have to perform the ritual to keep the bloodline going; it seems they are found every ten years and, they are important for the task I have been given as a traveller of my year. I have to go the demon of justice has tracked me down; I’m planning on travelling to 1967 next week to see if another witch has been awakened. Here’s the list of some of the witches from the Jeremy family from the year 1933 – 2013 that I have noted and the year their powers are to be awakened. I was unable to locate past witches.

1933 – Meredith Jeremy
1943 – Elizabeth Jeremy
1953 – Leanne Jeremy
1963 – Betsie Jeremy
1973 – Eliza Jeremy
1983 – Sally Jeremy
1993 – Rayne Jeremy
2003 – Melissa Jeremy
2013 – Faith Jordon Jeremy

I glanced at my name written officially in the journal; and then my grandmother’s name, Meredith Jeremy.

“She had died years ago, how are we to see her?” I asked bewildered still staring at the list of my relatives who I didn’t know where witches.

Kaleb pulled out the small glowing orb that I had seen from earlier from his bag and placed it on the table.

“We go back in time to see her.” He said, once again with a straight face; like all of this time travelling stuff is supposed to be normal to me or something.

“And how do we do that, how does that thing work?” I asked trying to grasp the concept that this was really happening. I reached out to touch the strange orb thing; but Kaleb pulled it towards him.

“I can’t have you touch it; it’s not safe for you to travel without me.”

He reached into his wallet suddenly and pulled out some money and placed it on the table, then stood up and threw on his jacket and started walking out of the restaurant. I got up and followed after him, my thoughts racing at the information about myself I had just learned.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and seen a text from a childhood friend named Stephanie I haven’t spoken to in forever; we had gone our separate ways after High School when she got into a college two hours away.

‘Where are you? I need to talk to you about something important, it’s urgent.’ I lifted my head up from my phone and looked around; the realization sank in that I didn’t know what city I was in at that current moment.

“Hey Kaleb, what city do we happen to be in right now?” I asked him as I caught up to him and he turned around and placed a finger on my lips indicating me to stop talking for a moment, then out of nowhere leaned in to kiss me.

I was caught off guard to say the least but I went with it, letting the surprise of the kiss melt into me.

We broke away from each other finally and he looked down at me and had a look of surprise on his face himself.

“I’m sorry I just really wanted to do that for some time now, and uh were in Wheeler Field now.”

“Don’t apologize, and thank you; where to now?” I asked still distracted slightly by the kiss but I texted Samantha back to tell her where I was.

He seemed distracted as well as his hands started fumbling around to grab his phone to check something before looking back up at me.
“We need to gather a few things before we go back in time; I need to show you something first.” He told me grabbing my hand in his and leading me away from the sidewalk and down a forest path.

***
“So you never answered the one question I asked, why my time; why have you been around all this time and I’m only meeting you now?” I wondered as I walked with Kaleb down a twisted forest path.

“I came to this year to meet you because of your fate as a witch and to gather as much information as I can before your time has come to awaken your powers. It is part of my destiny to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible, I had to erase your memory so that the information you knew did not scare or frighten you from the destiny you have been given. I’ve been back and forth all these years in order to get to know you, but I’ve been around since you were 9 years old, I found your name in my father’s Journal after he died and I awakened as a traveller to test if you truly were the one.”

I nodded, the information given circled around in my mind as I considered what was before me.

We reached a small cabin inside the forest; it was hidden away in behind some trees and looked like something out of a fairy tale.

“Oh wow, what’s this?” I asked reaching out to touch the door of the little cabin and watching as it opened up, I pushed on in and seen a room filled with unlit candles and some kind of circle thing in the middle of the hardwood floor.

“This is where the witch awakening rituals where held, this is the place we have to go when we go back to 1933 for your ritual. We just need to do a few things before we go back. He walked over to a shelf and grabbed a large book off of it and dusted it off and placed it in his bag.

“This is going to sound odd, but I also need a drop of your blood in the middle of the floor; you’ll understand when we go back.” He told me pulling out a small knife from a container and handing it to me.

I took the knife and cut into a spot on my finger, wincing slightly from the pain and a drop of blood squeezed out, Kaleb took a small shot glass and put it under my finger as the blood drained into the cup. He then emptied it onto the floor and the candles lit up suddenly, I watched in amazement as my blood made a complete circle in the middle of the floor.

“Whatever you hear, or see; just ignore it. Nothing can harm you in here.” I started to feel lightheaded and I sat down on the floor, Kaleb put an arm around me to keep me from falling over.

I opened my eyes to see a strange woman standing before me, she whispered my name and her eyes where a jet black. I felt frightened, but I remembered what Kaleb told me and I held my breath as she spoke to me.

“You are about to embark on an important journey that will change your life forever, all I ask of you is to not take any of this lightly. I am giving you this charm that will protect you from the evils of this life, keep it safe and don’t lose it.”

She handed me a golden chain with a charm on the end of it in the shape of a circle with a gold stone in the middle of it. It was absolutely beautiful, and for a moment it reminded me of the chain I always seen my mother wearing in her photos. I took it from her and was immediately zapped back to reality; the gold chain still in my hand.