Witch Juice Ch 03

Chapter 3

The pale woman's steps rustled gently as she made her way through a thick forest. She had a bored expression as she eyed the bright blue sky peeking out from in between the overarching canopies. The verdant atmosphere strained her eyes and she actively resisted the sickly sweet smell of sap that filled her nostrils so readily. She continued to march past large trees and move branches out of her path. As she continued, somehow the forest became more and more sparse, as if the trees themselves were parting just for her. Trees looked more barren and thinly, but towering higher and higher as she proceeded.

She breathed out hard through her nose in irritation, not looking forward to continuing on. Soon the vivid greens of the forest began to degrade in their leafy radiance, the trees becoming paler and older. The soft rustling of the underbrush turned to harsh crunching, and the woman was forced to watch her step to avoid what seemed like petrified, gnarled roots underfoot. Soon a light fog sifted underfoot, and the air became heavy and moist. The blue sky dulled into a saddening grey and the smell of sickly sap quickly morphed into that of burnt plastic. As she continued the forest opened up, the trees became thinner and thinner and the fog thicker and thicker.

She squinted ahead as she could finally make out silhouettes in the distance as the forest seemed to fully clear out in the field in front of her. She swiftly swatted her arm in front of her, and the fog tore apart at her command with a sharp howl, revealing a group of women, each equally as pale as the new arrival. Each was garbed in different manners of dark-shaded robes, some plain and tattered, others outfitted with jewels, furs, and feathers. Some outfits were fashionably modern, their dresses lined with sharp and boxy features. Others preferred simpler robes and dresses with earthy tones without much accessorization. They were gathered around a table, some standing, some sitting, some leaning. The table was made of more thin, gnarled, and twisted tree roots, white as bone. It seemed as if it was growing out of the earth, forming into a rugged, ovular tabletop. The seats followed the same theme, each sprouting evenly from around the table. The new arrival kept firm with a stern expression.

The ladies eyed the pale woman as she approached. They pressed her with a variety of leering and glaring, but she paid no heed. She marched towards the table, her fierce expression unwavering.

One particularly large lady finally spoke up towards her. "How good of you to join us, Lilith." she sneered with annoyance. The lady sat at the longer end of the oval table, her hands folded in front of her, elbows on the table. She was older than the others, her eyes beady and sharp, and her nose jutted out of her face like a thin dagger. She wore dark violet lipstick which darkened her grim frown and her equally dark eyeliner made her killer gaze seem ever so piercing. She wore an ornate, old-fashioned black dress decorated with silver skulls around her collar which was adorned with large, black feathers fanning out around her neckline. Her face, twisted and leathery with a cascade of deep wrinkles, was made even more dour as it was heavily shaded by the large brim of an enormous cocktail hat, tilted upon her head.

"Wouldn't miss one of these meetings for the world." Lilith jabbed back sarcastically. The council before her gasped and whispered to themselves, some retorting back with "Watch your tongue," or "Know your place." Lilith was unphased.

The large lady continued her intense frown. She unfolded her hands and held one out. Suddenly, three pieces of parchment manifested in her hand out of purple flames flaring out with a quick, sharp hiss. "Three tickets, Lilith." She grasped the tickets tightly in a fat, wrinkly fist. "Three demon tickets came in while you were on your excursion."

"Your little trips around town are spreading us thin!" one other thin, old lady screeched out, spitting out between her words, "As if we were not spread thin enough, Mother Maura is now working herself to the bone making up for your constant absences!"

"And?" Lilith replied. "That's what Beatrice was for, I thought she was your little all-star demon hunter."

"That is not how our coven operates!" bellowed Mother Maura, pointing at Lilith with a stern finger. "You said that you wanted to hunt demons, and yet you are out frolicking about, doing god-knows-what."

Another lady chimed in with a hoarse cough, "Unknowingly putting our coven at risk of unveiling ourselves to all of human society."

Suddenly the fog behind the large woman opened up in a small section. Out walked a woman, half a head taller than Lilith. Her light, blond hair shone brightly through the dank atmosphere as she strode towards the table with a confident swagger. She wore a dark blue, one-piece dress with a short, frilly skirt that flapped to and fro as she marched forward. On her head was an equally blue, wide brim hat with a leather-clad band fastened with a silver buckle. The conical crown swirled into the air and spiraled at the end to a sharp point. When she got near enough to catch sight of Lilith, her jaw dropped and she speedily took off her sunglasses, revealing her cartoonishly large, deep-blue doe eyes. She bounced as she strode forth, her large breasts jiggling under her dress which was tightened by a blue ribbon at the waist.

"Oh, my, gosh." she blurted out. "Is that Lilith?"

"Beatrice." Lilith greeted back nonchalantly, but behind her expressionless facade, she was seething with rage at the sight of the bubbly young woman.

"Lily-y-y-y-y!" she screeched as she stomped around the table readying a hug that would likely not be fully reciprocated. Lilith hated Beatrice for her personality, but what Lilith hated more were the two enormous things that were bouncing with her. Beatrice's chest erupted into a storm of energetic bouncing as she stomped towards Lilith. She squeezed Lilith in her arms as she suffocated in her pillowy bosom. Lilith squirmed to get out of Beatrice's tight grip, but she was surprisingly strong.

"Enough!" Maura commanded. "Beatrice, tell Lilith what you've done today."

"Omigosh, you wouldn't believe!" Beatrice bubbled out. "Three whole tickets, Lily-"

"My name's Lilith," she objected with a low groan, only to fall on deaf ears as Beatrice continued.

" -and I took down all three demons in just two hours. Actually, I guess I was kinda cheating 'cuz two of them were partners tryin' to rob a convenience store-"

"Sounds really great, Beatrice."

"But the third one was that serial killer that was on the news like a month ago- remember there was that whole thing with the mom and her son on the news and then there was this whole big crowd-funded funeral from the internet and then that guy's grandpa gave that funny speech but then someone on the internet made it into a meme with those big white captions and stuff, but then everyone on the Twitter realized that it was from a funeral and then that guy got canceled but then that canceled guy apologized and then-"

"Okay, dear, that's good, please take a seat," Maura asked softly.

"Why didn't you stop her earlier?" another lady suddenly chirped up.

Maura snapped back to the matter at hand. "A great job, indeed Beatrice." she grinned a proud, yet still devilish smile at Beatrice who took her seat on a gnarled chair, she shined a bright smile back. Maura's face melted right back into disappointment as she turned her head to Lilith. "Now why don't you tell me what you've been up to."

"Work," Lilith stated.

"What work?"

"Important work." Lilith fired back without remorse.

"Who assigned this work to you?"

"I did." Her confident composure did not fail.

Maura was not amused. She sighed and looked around, pausing for a moment. Finally, she spoke again. "Everybody back to your caves and homes and nests."

"Is Lilith in trouble?" Beatrice chirped out innocently.

"This is a private concern now," Beatrice replied.

"She should be excommunicated now, we can't afford all of these mishaps," another witch creaked out with a raspy tone.

"I alone will decide how we shall proceed in this matter," Maura stated, sternly.

"But I don't live in a cave or home or nest, I live in a-"

"Please go home," Maura retorted, louder.

Another lady complained out "But we haven't even had tea, yet, I brought the whole set that Bertha wanted and-"

"Out!" Maura barked an order that sounded like the crack of thunder. The rest of the women, including Beatrice, one by one quickly dissolved into a flash of violet flames, teleporting away. Maura faced Lilith alone.

"You were out collecting again, weren't you."

Lilith sneered at Maura.

Maura shook her head. "I had Beatrice on a fourth assignment: to follow you. Did you notice?"

"No."

"That's because she's a talented witch, unlike you."

That struck Lilith, who crossed her arms but balled up a tight fist beneath her elbow. She grits her teeth in anger but couldn't say anything back. Maura pointed a finger at Lilith once more and stuck her head out. She spoke her next words slowly and with a low, menacing growl.

"We cannot go back. We cannot go back to the dark ways. We are not crones seducing men to consume their seed in the pursuit of immortality-"

"It's not for that."

"Then what? Do you enjoy sucking men off in toilet stalls? Mating with them in custodians' closets? How about tugging them off at bus stations? Hmm?"

Lilith breathed in the air, hard through her nose in an attempt to reel back her burning anger.

Maura tilted her nose up at Lilith and smiled menacingly once more. Her sudden change in demeanor as her leathery wrinkles wriggled and morphed was enough to finally pierce Lilith's stone-like resolve, causing her to reel back a step. "I know what this is. Ramblings from your mother, is it?"

Lilith's brow began to furrow with anger and her nostrils flared, the word "mother" striking a chord in her heart. Maura's pretentious tone loudly echoed within her head and caused a surge of burning hatred to well up in her chest.

"Talk of a descendant, whose seed has the power to create a potion of ultimate power- who hasn't heard these... these myths and legends. The descendant of the ultimate wizard, is it?" Maura gave out a wheezy laugh. "Stories for the disillusioned, stories designed to take Good Witches like us off the path of righteousness."

Lilith's eyes narrowed in hostility. "He's out there... it's true," she hissed out. However, her confidence wavered in the face of Maura's patronizing demeanor.

"And this is what you do?" Maura burst out with a cynical smile. "You'll extract the seed from every man on Earth until you find the right one?"

"That's not-" Lilith started to explain, but Maura would not hear it. Even Lilith, with her actions being told back to her, was beginning to falter in her resolve for her own plan.

"Do not be like your mother: she went against the coven's rules and now she's six feet in the ground-"

At the mention of her mother, Lilith's fists tightened even harder. Soon, small sparks of blue electricity danced around her hands, the strands of energy sending out sharp static whines into the area, the sounds were picked up by Maura.

"Do you wish to strike me down, child?" Maura frowned.

"You're tempting me." Lilith threatened.

Maura opened her mouth to let loose more words of degradation, but she stopped herself as she observed tears beginning to well up in Lilith's eyes. Her haughty expression began to soften into seriousness.

"Fine, child. Perhaps I was too harsh." Lilith wiped away her tears as her bottom lip quivered, but her eyes still pressed Maura with rage.

"Lilith." Maura calmly continued. "Take up these tickets. Train. There is no easy way out with magical shortcuts and fanciful potions." She gazed into Lilith's dark eyes, pleading with her. "You have one job. These tickets come up. You go kill demons. And eventually, our coven will be accepted into the Higher Domain."

"And you don't think this... Higher Domain is a myth or a legend?" Lilith retorted accusingly.

Maura's eyes drooped from pity and back into anger. But she slowly closed her eyes and rubbed her temple with one of her fingers, calming herself from another outburst.

"I am hundreds of years old, child. I have seen things- heard things- felt things that you will probably never feel in your lifetime- do not tell me what you know of myths and legends."

The words buzzed inside Lilith's head. They caused waves of anger to plunge down her spine, sparks of madness shot into her bones. She wanted to do nothing more than to just scream. Instead, she bit her bottom lip in frustration and quickly pivoted and marched back into the dense fog behind her without another word.

"Lilith!" Maura called out but to no avail.

Hours later, Lilith sat at a cafe table in the mid-afternoon. After her stressful day, the cool, still, air-conditioned cafe made her feel at ease. Lilith sat in a booth in the corner. She had a laptop opened up before her and she was clacking away at the keys, sometimes nipping at her nails in contemplation. She had a document open on the screen, which had many pictures of mens' social media profile pictures pasted all over it. All sorts of color-coded lines, dashed, zig-zagged, dotted, solid, were connecting each picture to another one, with small factoids and notes written near each entry. She opened up all sorts of popular social media sites, even some of the older, obscure ones, comparing her document to other profiles. Occasionally she would shake her head and start searching for locations, last names, parent's names, pet names, any straw she could grasp at. She drew a line from one man's profile and scrolled up very far. The document was tall, and towards the top, the social media profiles turned into scanned newspaper clippings, obituaries, various documents, and even old-style portraits. All the while the words of Mother Maura echoed in her head.

Lilith, unable to concentrate, buried her head in her hands and groaned.

"Cunt." Lilith quietly murmured to herself within her fingers. "Cunty cunty, cunt cunt." She sat back in her seat and groaned, not caring who heard her. Lilith laid her head on the backrest and looked up at the cafe's ceiling. She breathed in, deeply, in an attempt to relax. She then held her hand out and cusped it. Suddenly a small flash of flame sparked in her palm, and a locket appeared in its place. With her thumb, she flicked open a small latch on the side, swinging the locket open and revealing a picture of a woman. She had the same dark eyes, pale skin, and jet-black hair as Lilith. She wore a calmed expression with a small, pleasant smile. Lilith sighed out as she looked at the photo. "I know you're right. I know you told me not to try stuff like this, but it's the only way."

She suddenly shot up as she heard her phone buzz. "I swear to god if it's Beatrice-" she cursed. But Lilith's eyes shot wider as she recognized a name on the phone that made her fall silent. She squinted in confusion at the screen before hastily gathering her things into her bag and swiftly moving out of the cafe.

She made her way to a bench outside of a large hotel on a busy city street. Lilith would often pass this place on her excursions. It was a modest place, clean brick-work with a gothic feel, but the passing of cars and the smell of gasoline and vomit all over the place ruined the cozy atmosphere for Lilith. She wished she could have seen it at night when it was calmer and the street lamps would illuminate the way. She sat down at the bench and waited.

A man talking loudly on the phone walked past. She heard sudden shouting as she saw a woman across the street yelling at a store owner as the owner yelled bacon threatening to call the cops. A tired mother pushing a stroller rolled past without a hint of love in her eyes for the screeching toddler in it. Another woman that reminded Lilith of Beatrice bounced down the street with a small pomeranian that dashed at her as it made its way past her bench but was quickly reeled back by its short leash, yapping at Lilith all the while.

"Lonely?" A tall man wearing a long brown trench coat suddenly approached Lilith. He had sharp eyes, and a chiseled jaw covered by a five-o'-clock shadow. She turned and her expression immediately turned to disgust.

"Vincent." she greeted sternly. "You have some nerve texting me."

"Nice to see you again, too, lovely." Vincent smiled at her with a wide, devilish half-grin.

"What do you want? I paid you for your last tip," she said accusingly, shooting up from the bench.

"Not about that, hon." Vincent's grin was unwavering as Lilith glared straight into his eyes. He popped a cigarette from his jacket pocket and stuck it in the side of his mouth. "Gimme a light."

"I don't carry lighters."

"Ah- 'cuz you don't need to, eh?"

"Not out in public."

"Oh, but there's a lot you do out in public these days."

Lilith's glared harder at him. "What are you here to do, rat me out? My coven is already following me around."

"Come on, light it," he urged.

Lilith's face squinted in confusion. "Why are you so-"

"I think it's cool. Oh, man, I remember the first time I saw it. Mind. Blowing. Do it the way you did it the first time," he beamed as he remembered.

"Listen, I don't have time for your stupid games."

"Games? This a game?" Vincent opened his jacket a bit. Lilith, confused, peered inside. She was stunned.

"You... have it?"

"Light my cigarette."

Lilith's nostrils flared up with annoyance. She just snapped her fingers at one end of Vincent's cigarette and it burned to life with a quick spark of flames. Vincent gave out a low, hearty laugh.

"Let's go inside." He suddenly marched towards the hotel.

"This is a bad idea, Lilith," she quietly told herself. She sighed and tailed after Vincent into the hotel.

Vincent's room was basic but cozy. It had a queen-sized bed and a small flat-screen TV at the other end of the room along with a sizable bathroom, large vanity to the side of the bed, and even a stove. None of those fancy mini-fridges that Lilith had read about in books, though.

He sat down at a cushioned armchair near the bed as he sighed out in relief.

"Been a long day for both of us, huh?"

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Show it to me."

"Hmm.." Vincent put his fingers on his chin and tapped, humming in thought with a feigned quizzical look.

"Show it!" Lilith demanded once more.

"Okay." Vincent reached into his jacket, but quickly stuck his hand back out and produced nothing.

"Vincent," Lilith warned.

Vincent instead reached over to the nightstand and opened a drawer. From it, he presented to Lilith a little black dress on a hanger. "Tuh-dah!" he teased.

"What the fuck is this?" she complained.

"Wear it," he commanded with a grin.

"I am not your little plaything, Vincent," Lilith warned again, clenching her fists at her sides. Her eyes began to glow a bright violet.

"Woah, woah, hon, let's take things easy." Vincent put his hands up with a smirk. "Just put it on..." Vincent side-eyed the dress, curious to see if this would work. "...and we can get to business."

Lilith looked at the dress. She sighed and shook her head as she walked over to pick it up for a closer inspection. "Very sentimental, " she commented. "This looks like what I wore to our first date."

Vincent shook his head yes with a blank expression.

Lilith looked at the dress, then back at him, then back to the dress. Lilith rolled her eyes and waved her finger at the dress, which instantly turned into dust with a quiet fizzle.

"Hey, I asked for one thing-" Vincent asserted with aloofness, but suddenly Lilith pointed to herself. In a sudden flash, purple flames surrounding her body, and in a single instant, her clothes were replaced with a skin-tight, silky, black dress. Vincent smiled wide, but not too wide, holding back his utter giddiness. He eyed her up and down. The tight silk hugged her thin figure and outlined her toned stomach, displaying a trim, sexy hourglass shape. It shaped nicely around her wide hips and perky breasts. It was short in length, the skirt ends tightly hugging around the middle of her thighs, revealing their milky, muscular form and presenting her thin yet strong legs. The straps were thin and the dress was low cut enough to display her subtle cleavage.