Rise of the Night Witch

For SUAR 6

Summer Hill was a university town first and foremost. Other than Whitley University, its park with the titual hill, and a decommissioned research facility in the woods, it had few landmarks that drew people in.

Whitley wasn't exactly Ivy League. Its admission rate was fairly high and despite lacking the prestige of its competitors, it drew in students from many surrounding states. Those students were younger than the local population, had different values, and jacked up the housing prices through their sheer existence.

Needless to say, the townsfolk and the students hated each other.

The students' landlords sided with the townsfolk in this conflict

Marissa's bus stopped in the town's outskirts. She left the bus station to face a picturesque suburban townscape that wouldn't have looked out of place in an old sitcom. White picket fences surrounded pastel-colored houses while freindly neighbors walked their dogs over the sunny lanes.

That made the dirty, overcrowded student's dorm stick out even more. They had thrown a party again. Great.

Trash littered an overgrown lawn so full of herbs that she could use them as potion ingredients. Compared to all those pastel-colored houes, the dorm with its peeled-off cement stuck out like a frog's eye in a cauldron. A window even got boarded up because of aggressive ball games in the courtyard.

Several cats belonging to her landlady Carolyn Barnes played in the lawn and even meowed in Siris' direction. His glamour was designed for humans, obviously.

Marissa walked in through the front door. She lived in a windowless ground floor that lay deep enough to almost qualify as a second basement. Ventillation was poor, not to the point that mold grew, but to the point that one had reason to worry about mold. Before she removed them, her bookshelf used to be full of spiderwebs. Now, it was fortunately decorated by DVDs, college textbooks, and the occasional YA novel instead. One lacked the beautiful view the upper floors provided and the heating sometimes failed, but the rooms were affordable.

She was a witch now. Witches liked the darkness.

Marissa entered the bathroom. In the mirror, she inspected the tiny scar under her sleeve that remained from Darcy's voodoo healing. As long as she didn't wear short sleeves, no-one would see it. For a supposedly unhealable wound, Darcy did a good job.

With the cold water from her sink, she washed the Otherworldly mud from her face before taming her brown locks by stroking through them with her fingers. Not perfect, but she hadn't planned on leaving the house this weekend anyway.

Once she was done, she existed the bathroom and threw herself on her bed.

"More sunlight would be nice, but it's okay for a demesne, I guess," Siris asked.

Marissa stroked him as he stood near her bedside. He felt so real when he assumed a physical form. As if he was made of flesh and covered in actual fur. She always wanted to have a cat since she was young. When she was ten, her father bought her one from the animal shelter, but they had to give it back since she was allergic. Thankfully that this didn't extend to magic ghost cats.

He walked away from her hand. "Eh, I'm a spirit of wisdom, not a plush toy."

Marissa moved in her bed until she rose from her pillow and sat on its edge. "Wonder how you got that way. What's that bargain you talked about with this scarf-wearing fairy man?"

"How about a ground rule? The less you ask me about this, the more I'll teach you."

"And what's that Seelie Queen you mentioned?"

"She's the one who gave me my nine lives. Let's keep it at that." Siris curled into a sleeping posture with his head below his tail. "Your first lesson begins after my well-deserved nap is over."