Bitchcraft
A story by Jack Raynard
Browse all of the stories produced at Guardian Summer School here
The moment Adele walked in, I was head over heels. Her legs moved with the grace of a ballet dancer, but her 6-hole Doc Martens moved to a slow, ballroom rhythm. One-two-three, one-two-three…, she waltzed. My heart, was on the contrary, doing a salsa.
I played with my water bottle on the table and watched the liquid slosh around and smash against the sides, but my mind snapped back to her. There was something wild about her flickering amber eyes that spat sparks with every motion, hidden behind a curtain of sleek ebony hair. Her skin was creamy like froth on the sea waves, but almost sickly looking. Her cheekbones were jagged like a shoreline and she carried two heavy, black, probably designer bags under her eyes. She looked dead. She looked electric. She looked like a storm in a plastic water bottle. I was completely in love.
Maybe it wasn’t her charm and her beauty that made me trail behind her like a kite with no wind and no desire to flutter away; it was just my naivety. And knowing what I know now, I would’ve probably just continued to stare at my water bottle, but you’ll think I’m an idiot if I don’t explain the full thing.
Adele seemed to have put a spell on everyone in our year. When she clicked her pen, we would all rise like waiting watchdogs. When she impatiently looked at the clock, so would we. By first period, she was already the ring leader, without even lifting one of her dainty fingers.
She’d slumped down in the seat in front of me and I’d spent two thirds of French class staring infatuated at the back of her head, before she turned around and asked me the date once our fossil of a teacher asked us to take notes. Me. She could’ve looked left or right but she went to me. I wondered if she was drawn to me, or if it was just a thing that happened, but I dreamed that she’d found me as bewitching as I’d found her. I fantasised about being that hypnotic, that…beautiful. I was nothing like that. I could never be, but for a second I could at least imagine I’d drawn her in like she’d drawn in me.
“Beth, right?” She asked, flashing her jagged little teeth in an electric grin that made my palms sweat. I nervously tucked my hair behind my ear and attempted to recollect myself.
“Yeah, hi.”
“Are you new too?”
“Uh, no, I’m not,” It was sort of depressing really that I wasn’t, considering the permanently empty seats next to me. I pulled my jumper sleeves over my hands and pressed my knees together. “Lived here all my life actually.”
“Really? If you’re a loner too, can I sit next to you?” Adele smiled again cheekily. “We could be loners together.”
“Of course, yeah!” I replied a little too enthusiastically. I love girls. “Us misfits have got to stick together…and that.”
She scooped up her work with one hand and her bag with the other, and flunked herself down next to me with a stunning amount of grace. I would’ve fallen over twice. This girl was wonderful.
“What day is it?” Her voice rolled right down my spine, and her perfectly plucked and filled in yet still effortlessly natural looking eyebrows raised a bit. I couldn’t clear my throat to speak, and my tongue felt too big for my mouth when I tried to reply.
“It’s um…Thursday.”
“No, sorry,” She cackled a little. I died. “I mean the date.”
“Oh, that- I mean it’s, IT’S the 24th.”
“Thanks.” Then she turned around and starting writing it at the top right corner of the page, head titled, and I could see the glittery fountain pen bobbing slowly from over her elbow. “Halloween in a week.” She said, and I wasn’t sure if she was still speaking to me, I’d be surprised if she was. Then she turned to hear me reply.
“Yeah.” I swallowed. “It’s not that big here around here, I mean it’s all pretty conservative and boring and all.”
“Shame. Was thinking of having a party or something, if I make any friends.” She looked up from her pen and charmingly smiled, and I noticed a little lipstick stain on her teeth. “I’m glad I’ve made a friend already.”
We spent a week sitting together, and she liked the same bands and the same films as me. It was sort of awkward at times because I never felt worthy of her, and at other times I felt like I’d known her all my life. The first day she hugged me, a Monday morning, she smelt like incense and jasmine and home. That was also the day I didn’t stutter once talking to her, and at lunchtime she invited me around her house.
“It’s because we move around a lot I never really get to fit in.” She explained, when I stared vacantly in response. “My parents are really happy I’ve found someone to hang out with, and you’re really so lovely and sweet. We could chill, y’know? Away from all these shallow, simple minded people for once.”
I could’ve been honest and told her the friends you make in your first week aren’t usually your friends after the first month. That she was far too cool for me, and considering the more popular or more indie kids were already eyeing her up, we’d grow apart. But I could enjoy the ride, and any ride with her was what I wanted. She could’ve asked me to jump off a cliff, and because she was so charming and I was so smitten I probably would’ve done it. My parents would’ve probably yelled at me but I would’ve. So I texted mum and told her I’d be home late and waited eagerly by the clinking iron gates to see her strutting over, looking too cool to even know me, and we walked back to hers.
The front garden was littered; a faded upturned trampoline leaned against the fence and the dying grass was spotted with crushed cans, crisp packets and a few smashed bottles. The path was overgrown with moss growing through the countless cracks, and the remainder of the flaking paint on the front door was a deep aubergine. Either my parents were far too fussy about garden upkeep, or Adele’s family were squatting here.
She opened the door and flicked on a light switch. The inside of the house was furnished with plush royal blues, rich shades of plum and everything had a golden trim that caught the light. It was luxurious, regal, and I traced my fingers along the velvets and silks as if I was expecting anything less. I heard fast, soft thuds as Adele ran up the stairs.
“My room is the attic. Don’t bother about taking your shoes off.”
“Where are your parents?” I called, trailing behind.
“Out. Do you want a drink? I’ve got loads of green tea.”
“I’m fine thank you.”
Her bedroom was lined with twinkly fairy lights and dripping in drapes of fabric. She flung herself onto the bed and crossed her legs, straightened her back and patted the space in front of her. Gingerly, I crept over, ducking so as not to disturb to elegant interior and sat half on the bed, half off.
There was a comfortable silence as we listened to music and she burnt some of those really expensive scented candles, but I wanted to speak to her so badly it was tearing me into pieces. Her voice sounded like honey over rocks, she was so mesmerising that I couldn’t look away. And I didn’t. She noticed me staring and her eyes met mine and like an old friend, they moved closer with longing and familiarity. Before long Adele kissed me, three times in fact.
The first time it took me by surprise and it was rather short. I don’t really have much experience and the second time I think I bit her, but the third time I sort of rode it out. I rode the surf and the waves of her, the pale frothy ocean that drew me in. I knew what the movies were talking about; I wanted to go to cafes and libraries and museums with her, quiet places where I could just watch her move. And I wanted to go to the cinema with her and I wanted to see how she responded to the moving pictures on the screen, see how captivated she was whilst longing she’d look at me like that. I wanted to break into a swimming pool with her at midnight.
Most of all I wanted to sink, sink, sink, deep into the floor and I clung to her like we were drowning. So we kissed, and she pulled away and looked at me for a few seconds.
“Can I try something a bit weird?”
“What, like…a French kiss?”
She cocked her head back and laughed loudly, and I felt myself blushing and laughing with her. It was sort of reassuring that she laughed so loud because I was started to view her as inhuman. “You’re so cute.”
Adele bent over like a cat stretching in the sun and pulled out a box from under her bed, and placed it on top of her star-printed duvet. It was a big shoe box, the type you get boots in, and she lifted off the lid and looked inside. She bit her lip and furrowed her perfect eyebrows, then whacked out an Ouija board.
“What-“
“-I know what I’m doing, trust me, okay Beth?”
“Look,” I swallowed about a shot glass worth of saliva that I’d conjured out of fear. Or from kissing. “I’m not going to perform some bullshit séance with you, I’m sorry. My aunt was a wiccan, and, she did a load of traumatising stuff when I was a kid and she scared the shit out of me, and I just don’t want to go anywhere near it, and-“
“-oh come on Beth, I thought you were open minded.”
“Not about conjuring spirits! Like, you think spirits care whether your stepsister lied about your inheritance? They’re busy, doing spirity things! No wonder they get angry.”
Adele giggled and then looked at me, almost flirtatiously. “Do you believe in this stuff then?”
I wiped the sweat from my hands on my jeans. I’d never really thought about it. Maybe I did, it seemed sort of probable. I suppose I’m sort of superstitious. I once saw Robert Smith in a baked potato, but he’s not dead so I don’t think it counts for anything. Still, I nodded.
“So why not?”
“I need a wee.”
“It’s down there, then on the left.”
As I relieved myself, I pondered it more. And as I washed my hands my heart started beating like a hedgehog’s, which is 200bpm or something like that because I realised how scared I was of Adele. Maybe I should just go home. But I was so drawn and it was burning me up, the flames licking at my heartstrings and embers spitting in my face and smoke whispering at me to see what Adele wanted.
I walked out of the bathroom and Adele was standing there waiting for me, hands outstretched like she wanted me to take them. Hesitantly, partly because my hands were a bit wet but mostly because I was terrified, I reached out too. Sparks shot from her fingertips like threads of lightning, pulsing and buzzing and reaching like hungry hands out to my own. It shot through me and rushed through my veins in quick beats as I watched the lightning move. I looked up and her eyes were completely glowing fluorescent lavender and her face was tilted towards the sky, as if she were in a trance. It was hypnotic to watch.
She stepped back and her face dropped back to normal, whatever normal was for Adele. I was speechless. Suddenly I heard a rustling behind me coming from the bathroom as her eyes began to glow again and I turned to see the shower curtain rippling as if pushed by an invisible force. The tap started to run and the bath began to fill and so did the sink, overflowing and spilling over the sides, flooding onto the floor. The toilet paper unravelled and rolled out onto the lino. I felt a familiar hand on my shoulder, but trusted enough not to turn to look.
“Now,” I could almost hear her smirk. “Would you believe me if I said I knew a lot about all this…magicy, spirity stuff?”
“Are you a witch, Adele?”
“Yeah. Do you wanna go and ask a spirit how long is it until we break up?”
“Sure.”
A few weeks went by, spent kissing a lot and watching terrible horror movies together. It felt a little bit like Adele’s power was in me too. Not her witchy stuff, (believe me I tried) but her confidence. Her envy-inducing poise and her snarky ways began to rub off on me, and we’d strut down the corridor, arms linked and seas of lower year pupils would split right down the middle. We were a power couple and nobody even knew just how much.
I was only really myself when I was with Adele and I felt like she was with me. She would use her powers all the time when we were alone, picking up things, opening windows and swatting flies with little bolts of lightning. When we were out, it was our little secret. I suppose it was just a matter of time before she realised just how much power she really had.
“Adele, that’s STEALING!” I whispered harshly as four smooth fifty pound notes rolled out of a cash machine.
“What am I gonna do, put it back?” She rolled her eyes. “It’s nobody’s money. It just came out of the machine, not anyone’s account. A technical fault. There’s nothing immoral about it.”
“It’s immoral because you’re taking something that isn’t yours!”
“Does anything belong to anyone, Beth?”
I sighed and brushed it off. It wasn’t that bad, and in a way she was right. Was it really stealing? Maybe she was purposefully laying low, but it took a month before she managed to worry me.
The class was in uproar. It was thirty minutes into the lesson and the teacher was nowhere to be seen. Nobody, apart from me and a boy despised by most, considered going to report it. Everybody was busy loudly chatting and using the teacher’s computer to watch videos and had no intention on stopping.
I spoke with confidence and a lot of sarcasm, but my pen was anxiously tapping against the table. “Do you know where Mr Roberts is, Adele?”
“Probably caught up in traffic.” She smirked and looked out of the window. My mouth dropped opened when I realised what she meant.
“Shit Adele, you crashed his car?”
“Keep your voice down!” She placed a finger over her chapped lips and bent towards the desktop. “Yes, but literally like the tiniest bit.”
“You only crashed his car a tiny bit?”
“I just fiddled with the brakes a bit yesterday so they’d only work if he hit them reeeally hard. So he’s probably fine and stopped the car in time and just a bit shaken, or we’d know.”
“How would you know? Adele, you’ve been here for four months and you’ve killed a teacher! Jesus, no wonder you move around so much.”
“Shut up, Beth.”
It was like she’d completely frozen over. She sent shivers down my spine with how her usual jesting nature had turned into something so terrifying, so icy and hostile. Guilt webbed across my body, threading around my heart and constricting it so it had to throb harder and harder to get noticed so the rest of my body still thought I was alive. I must’ve hit a nerve.
“I’m sorry.”
Her eyebrows creased together and she bit her lip. Then she grabbed her bag and stormed out.
I waited for her to come out of the building at the end of the day. She had her headphones in and looked straight ahead, walking fast like she was expecting to have to avoid me, but I wasn’t going to be a pushover this time. So I walked fast behind her and followed her out onto the street.
“Adele, I’m sorry that you got so hurt by what I said alright?”
“Oh that’s a GREAT apology.” She yanked out a headphone and glared at me, then put on the coldest, taunting voice. “Sorry you got offended, maybe next time you can not do that?”
“Come on you know what I mean, can’t you understand why I reacted so badly? I thought you were a killer!”
“I’m not though. Why the hell would you think that?”
She was right to be hurt. Of course, she was daring and impulsive and I didn’t always understand her, and that’s why I was a little scared. It was also why I was mesmerised. Adele may have been nasty sometimes, but she wasn’t a murderer.
“I did it so we could have a free period together. But since all I get is abuse from you, mayb-“
“I’m really sorry. I really, really am, and I don’t know what else to say.”
A thin smile spread across her lips, but it felt a little forced and it killed me. “Don’t say anything else then.” She saw my reaction and softened, melted. “Oh come here.”
“Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?” I asked after we’d hugged for a bit.
“I was planning something. Can you get out Thursday?”
“Can try.”
“Cool. Meet me by the swimming pool at midnight, and wear some dark clothes.”
That night, my chest was pounding as I snuck out. Every creak of the floorboards, every click of the door and every step I took felt so much louder and I planned what to say to my parents if I got caught. Were they lying there awake – could they hear my heart racing and the shaking in my hands? Did they know my steps were too cautious to just be going downstairs to get a glass of water? I felt so clumsy, so indelicate and brash whilst hurrying out into the street.
The clouds were creeping across the inky sky, illuminated by the few flickering street lamps placed a few hundred yards apart. I knew the way to the swimming pool off by heart because I passed it every day, but I didn’t know it so well this late at night. There was nobody around and I watched the condensation billow out of my mouth like smoke from a chimney as I walked, and kept my legs synchronised with my lungs in an attempt to stay calm and distracted.
Adele stood waiting by the entrance, clad in a black cape dress and on her perfectly shaped head she wore a felt Stetson. She looked so cool. I looked like a criminal.
“What are we going to do?”
“Come with me.”
“Can you tell me what we’re doing first?”
“Oh don’t be all boring Beth, it’s a surprise,” She rolled her eyes impatiently. “it’s an adventure. Just roll with it.”
She took my hand and twisted it into hers, and she walked a little bit ahead of me the whole way, like a child dragging a toy along on a string. There wasn’t a word between us as we crept around town, our shadows creeping and curling up fences and walls. It unnerved me a lot. I watched our silhouettes until we arrived outside the shiny, three story shop. The iron bars were pulled across behind the glass and there wasn’t a light on inside, apart from the little red LEDs on the security cameras.
“Adele, I’m not going to rob a department store with you, I’m sorry.”
“It’s not robbery because we’re not armed.”
“You’re armed though. How do we even get past the security any way?”
She lit up like a Christmas tree and the metal bars rolled over to the side. The little red lights on the cameras fizzed out like embers. Without another word, she walked straight in. I had no choice but to follow. Or it felt like I didn’t at the time.
She ran off into what I assumed was the control room and I stood there feeling like a bit of an idiot for a good minute or so until there was a sudden click, and the shop sprung to life. The lights all came on and the escalators started rolling – the number display boards by the cashiers flashed 00, waiting for commands. I always found something sort of romantic about shopping at night, but we weren’t shopping. Still, I felt blood rush to my cheeks as Adele took my hands and guided me with her.
“You brought a bag, didn’t you?”
I nodded, staring at the faceless display models. “Yeah. What do you want to get?”
“Just the most expensive stuff they leave here that we can get away with taking. The designer makeup and sunglasses and scarves and perfume, and jewellery. Things no one will miss. How much can you carry?”
“This feels so…wrong.”
“That’s the fun of it! Haven’t you always wanted to stick it to the man? A big ‘up yours’ to all these big corporations, taking their stock so they can’t push it on us any more?”
Thinking about it a little, I was so close to believing her before I remembered that I could think for myself. “But we’re hurting the little people. The security guards, the floor staff. They’ll get in trouble. The big bosses don’t care about a few missing eye shadow palettes, but that could be someone’s food for a month out the window-”
“They won’t Beth, because no one will notice and we won’t get caught. I promise. I’ve done my research and we’re going to be untouchable. None of the cameras will pick us up, I’ve disabled all the alarms, and we just tidy up when we leave. And don’t act like you don’t want to.” Adele leaned in, and put a skinny hand on my heart. “Look at how excited you are. This is the most rebellious thing you’ve ever done.”
“It’s something to tell the grandkids.”
“I don’t want children, but we can debate that later. Are you ready?”
What happened next was a blur, but a beautiful one. I remember tunnels and tunnels of her sparks that we walked through together. We chased each other up the escalators and through racks of felt coats, and all the fear that had coiled up inside of me since I left the house that night unwound, and I snared around her instead. I was really, truly, happy, running around there with her hand in mine, and I thought I could be happy anywhere else as long as she was there too. And when I woke up the next morning I’d want her, and the day after that, and if there’s a hell I’d want her with me there too, and I’d sacrifice the coolest spot for her.
There was something so exhilarating when we opened the jewellery cases. Usually I dared not to even press a finger on the glass and watched the gems glisten with hungry eyes like a dragon’s. I wouldn’t have dreamed of the smooth rose gold and sterling silver crossing my fingers, but after Adele detached them from the mechanisms with a tiny pair of pliers, we were free to cover ourselves in these precious stones and metals until we were dripping in them. And it was so much bloody fun, wearing things that people spent so much on by the dozen and laughing as we did it.
I remember cocking my head backwards and laughing until my cheeks ached for me to stop as Adele wrapped herself in every scarf she could find, demanding that I mummified her. And I remember seeing tears in her eyes as I pretended to be a snobby mother buying a hat for her daughter’s wedding, insisting that anything not completely lined with rhino skin just wouldn’t do.
“Ugh no, that’s horrible,” She said with disgust after spraying her wrist with an amethyst bottle of perfume branded with some has-been celebrity. “You smell it.”
“That’s disgusting.” My nose wrinkled up at the sickeningly sweet scent. “It smells like you should have a velvet tracksuit and a tiny dog.”
“It’s so strong! I stink of it.”
“I think there’s only one way out of this. You’re going to have to amputate your arm.”
Suddenly there was a booming voice that reverberated through the room, off every shiny surface and right through me like a bolt of panic.
“Who’s there?”
Adele grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and dropped to the floor, pulling me down with her. We lay there on our chests, hiding behind a low shelf. She mimed “I didn’t know there would be guards!” to me with a fierce panic that almost made it seem like it was my fault. I was terrified, and even more so because she was.
The voice spoke again and I heard the sound of more lights clicking on.
“I know you’re there. Come out.”
I looked across at the girl I was face-to-face with, if she was a girl at all. I’d followed her into the valley of death and for what, messing around with jewellery? It was too late to change anything now. In hindsight, I did everything wrong, but all I could do was lie there with this girl I wanted to hold and strangle at the same time.
“Let’s go.” Adele swallowed and she looked so weak I could’ve pushed her over.
“What?” I whispered in response. “Are we giving up?”
“I can’t run forever, Beth. I’m sorry.”
She looked deep and hard at me like searching for some understanding, and she would never be able to find it. I never did understand Adele. Maybe it was best that I didn’t. All I could do was smile thinly and nod, and watch her count down with her fingers taking heaving breaths like she was preparing for her execution.
Three fingers.
Two fingers, like a piece sign.
Her ring finger, still wrapped in all that gold.
I went onto my knees, shaking in the shadows, then onto my feet hunched slightly in fear. Bye-bye clear criminal record. Bye-bye Oxbridge.
“Put your hands where I can see them!” Yelled the guard, and mouth a walkie-talkie up to his mouth and spoke quickly. “We’ve got a teenage girl, short blonde hair, can’t be more than 5’6 on the second floor, seems to be alone.”
Looking to my side, I saw nobody. To the floor, the space where Adele should be was devoid of her. I nearly bit my lip so hard it bled
------
The officer, cinnamon hair slicked back into a Croydon facelift and rubicund figure plodding down the hallway, stops once she reaches me and peers through the bars. I glare back and notice her raised eyebrows, which she flattens out when we meet eyes.
“Visitor for you, Vale.”
It can’t be Mum and Dad. They already turned up to ask where their sweet little Beth went and to talk to me about how this will look in job interviews and staying away from bad crowds. They never really did that before, but I supposed they didn’t think they’d need to. And that, is probably the worst part of this.
Could it be Adele? My heart rises in my chest and comes up and out my throat as a low squeak. Sure enough, she’s walking down to me. I’ve been wishing that she’d come back, so I could sock her in the face and maybe get some closure. I hope she’s been feeling guilty. I hope she’s been miserable.
“Thank God,” I exhale, releasing a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “I was wondering when you’d come back. Did you sell the stuff we took? I’m assuming you have it, the police never found it.”
“Yeah. Got a lot for it too.”
“Enough to bail me out?”
“Yeah.”
“So…you’re here to bail me out.”
“No.”
“Oh. Right.” I nod slowly. “Wait, what the-“
“-I’m here to give you closure. So you don’t go about the rest of your short, meaningless existence waiting for an inevitable boring death and wondering what happened.” Adele rolls her eyes at my confusion, and continues. “What made you think I would bail you out? Take all that money I earned and spend it on you?”
“Because you got me arrested? Because you seriously owe me for manipulating me into a crime and then ditching me when we got caught?”
“No, you got caught. Everyone at school has been asking about you. I’ve told them I don’t know where it went wrong, that you’re spiralling down into a life of crime and it’s too late to stop you now. I feel terrible about it, I should’ve stopped you really, but it’s just one of those sad cases.”
Feeling physical nauseous with fury – no, rage, I point a shaking finger at her.
“You bitch.”
“What did you think would happen? That we’d skip off happily into the sunset or something?”
How did I ever trust her? My stomach starts to churn and my lip begins to quiver. I should really try and keep it together.
Then Adele looks around hesitantly. After seeing it’s just us and the disinterested guard looking the other way, she pulls her coat over her head and falls to the floor. Nonchalantly, the mound of quilted coat rises; head first, neck barely leaving shoulder level.
This isn’t the Adele I know; this is an elderly woman. Her hair is matted and grey, her sharp amber eyes framed with deep wrinkles. Jowls sagging like a bloodhound and her puckered mouth devoid of any life, she pointed a talon from a veiny hand with a corpse-like hue at her own face. A crackling, faint voice speaks.
“I was never Adele, Bethany.”
I shut my eyes, scared to look any longer. “Who are you then?”
“Take a good look at me and my two thousand year old glory. Since when were witches pretty teenage girls?” She cackles and I wince. “No, child, I am Ghethari, one of the oldest witches there is, and you fell right into my trap.”
“Why did you do this?”
“When money gets low, a girl has to get by somehow. I stole Adele’s body from a graveyard, found the house abandoned and once I met you, I knew you were the one I could… for lack of better word, exploit. I took everything you wanted, and everything you wanted to be, and became it.”
“Is that what you do?” Opening my eyes, my face begins to scrunch up with frustration and tears began to prick at my eyes in disbelief. “You…manipulate girls like me into trouble and laugh to the bank?”
“Don’t look so distraught about it.”
“How fucking dare you? So I meant absolutely nothing to you…to Adele?” I reassert my footing and it gives me a bit more confidence. “You can’t look me in the eyes and tell me none of that was real. Adele and I- we had something, we had a connection, she-“
“-saw right through you, yes. Two thousand years practice and you get quite good at acting. Don’t flatter yourself Bethany. I wish you the best of luck.”
With a swish of her cloak, I watch her evaporate into a tunnel of smoke that settles on the ground like a lawn of fog. I’m left with it seeping through the bars and making me cough and splutter, and the stench of that God-awful perfume goes right through me.
