Halloween - Clarity #1

10-9 to 10-15-2011

GBE2  #21  Clarity

I sit at the computer.  Blank expression on my face.  Blank page open before me.  Thinking without thinking.  Composing a story without overtly thinking about it.  No structure, just the vision.  A short snapshot in time.  An imaginary snippet in time.  Something from my imagination, or something from my past? The little light bulb over my head glows as a lighthouse in the middle of a storm.  Which topic grabs my interest?  How do I begin to describe what I have just “seen”? 

Then with a flash of insight.  The story unfolds.  I see the beginning, I see the character’s movement, I see one version of the conclusion.  Clarity.  Bolts of lightning couldn’t illuminate the mind’s eye any better.  Clarity.  The feeling of both jubilation and being centered within the moment.  Clarity.  I strive for that sensation.

That edgy feeling was back again.  The hair on the back of my neck stood up and the shin of my legs tingled.  That could only mean one thing.  That one thing wasn’t any good.  I edged against the wall, trying to look everywhere at once.  I could feel it probing for me.  I could feel it trying to sense where I was.  It knew my apartment was empty, so now it was roaming the streets.  That thing.  That awful thing loose on the streets.  Doesn’t bode well for Metropolis.  Doesn’t bode well for humanity that it broke free from its tether.  Or should I say tethers.  There was a tether to each of its eight legs. I hate spiders.  I really hate big spiders.  I really, really hate big spiders from another dimension.

“And why haven’t I been notified?  What do I pay that damn agency for, if not to be notified when one of my arch rivals breaks out of confinement?!”  I grumbled out loud. “ Don’t tell me they are having satellite trouble again.  That seems to be happening more and more frequently these days. Coincidence? I am beginning to think not.”

I edged along the wall towards my apartment.  Sanctity and safety were a mere block away. If only I were a block closer.  I could pull out any of the weapons from my arsenal.  Luckily, I had put a few spells and enchantments in my pocketbook before I left earlier.  I had gone out to meet a client.  Selling spells and enchantments supplements my income.  I may be a sorceress, but I still have to earn a living.  Groceries don’t come cheap these days, and I like to eat.

I’m not a witch.  That distinction I left up to my siblings.  I have a sister, Scarlett, who is the “big deal”  you know “Mother Superior” and all that.  It’s political.  Then of course my three brothers are warlocks and part of her coven.  Yes, I know, the four of them make the four directional/cardinal points.  And the three brothers they make the cardinal triangle.  And when the five of us are together we create the pentagram. When the five of us are together, we are some bad assed siblings. I just couldn’t buy into the whole package that being Wicca mandates.  You know, meeting with like minded wiccans once a month to talk about cleaning up the earth.  Dancing around a camp fire. (I’d rather roast marshmallows) Making certain no one does the nasty to “Mother Earth”.  It’s political. Yeah, the stigma that goes with being wiccan bugged me too.  Satan.  I don’t think so.  Whomever started that inane rumor was just plain old mean spirited!  Probably one of those vampire covens after a witch outdid them. Vampires are so vain!

Back to the problem at hand.  It seems the closer Halloween gets the more creepiness oozes out into our dimension. Doesn’t it make you wonder why?  Are they just not satisfied with being as creepy as they are in their own time and space? Yuck!  October is not my favorite month of the year.  Unusual for a sister of witches, isn’t it?  Well, I just don’t like to have so many messes to clean up.  And I’m not talking about my house, this time.  It’s all the nastiness that want to creep us out.  Sisters don’t do much cleaning up of the creepy things unless the creepys are messing with the “Mutha”, Earth that is.  That’s where we differ.  I work with “big brother”.  I work with the government to keep the nasties from taking over the world, or at least my part of it.

I zoom back into reality.  It’s just amazing what flashes through your mind when your body knows there is imminent danger!  It’s as though your mind is in total denial.  It’s like your brain is saying, “Nope, nothing goin’ on over here”….right.  Tingly feeling is crawling up my back now.  The closer I get to my apartment, the more the hairs on my body are standing straight up!  I really hate spiders.  And, if I’m right, the one that is waiting for me is huge! 

That bugger has to stand ten feet tall.  At ten feet tall, you know how big all those eyes are….gross, I get the shivers just thinking about having to deal with this clown again.  And, more than that, who helped it get out of its restraints?!  I remember the last time….looking into the mind of a spider takes an awful lot out of me.  It’s really hard to try to figure out what is actually “going on” and “why”, other than the obvious that it’s hungry and thinks Earth is all about easy meals.  Just spin a big web and get a big meal…those corpses are just awful to see!

I fidgeted with the spells I had tucked away in my cape.  A good luck charm, a couple of wards, a few privacy spells and a love potion.  Not too much help, I’m thinkin’.  I do have on the amulet Scarlett had made for me.  I sure hope it’s sending a beacon to them.  And that they are even paying attention to me…family, it’s political. 

My amulet appears, to the undiscerning eye, as an arm band.  I wear it high on my bicep.  You know how witches are, it’s all serpentine with ruby eyes.  I haven’t seen it in action, yet.  I don’t know that it actually works.  Or for that matter, what it really does when it is working.