The Witches #11 - A Halloween Adventure

   Halloween was an important time for Daphne, Tulip and Lilac. Whether it could be herald as the height of their social calendar was questionable, but also accurate. There was no month they loved more, no week they were more active, no other time of the year pumpkins were so readily available.

Foxglove didn’t quite understand the enthusiasm, indeed the first autumn they invited her to spend with them was an eye opening experience and when told to carve a pumpkin she simply gave up - halloween wasn’t really a seasonal celebration under the sea - but over the years she had become accustomed to the frantic joy it inspired in her friends and she would often spend the holiday with them before they all returned to the seaside (they in turn went to experience Christmas with her and had never seen anything like it, the lights and the decorated coral and the scent of seannimon filling everything; they hadn’t missed a year since). All plans were put on hold when it came to halloween, holidays and packing and trying to figure out what kind of animal had a beak and a furry tail, it could all wait.

‘It’s our tradition,’ Lilac had told Foxglove once, swimming in her pond with Gary. The sea snake loved Lilac almost as much as Foxglove did and it was not unusual for Lilac to take an afternoon dip with them, following Foxglove to the depths of the pond and discovering countless wonders. ‘The only thing we’ve ever really celebrated. Plus we get to dress up all fancy, so of course Tulle loves it.’

‘Why witches?’ Foxglove asked; Lilac laughed, diving beneath the glossy water. She appeared before Foxglove a moment later, arms resting on the bank and eyes still laughing.

‘What else could we be?’ asked wryly before pulling Foxglove back into the water with her, the two of them diving and circling Gary and swimming for hours.

Every year, ever since they could remember, the sisters had dressed as witches for halloween, the same but always different: one year it was witches of the stage, sirens and ghouls who captured the heart of the nation with their one liners and concoctions; the year after they were caricatures, exaggerated and comical; the year after that Tulip turned them all into forest witches, although they did end up looking a lot more like mushrooms.

Foxglove’s first suggestion had been a firm favourite: book witches. That year it had been hard to tell exactly who was who beneath the costumes, the sisters reaction to the theme being to go all out and transform into fairytale characters, witches who were 500 years old, witches who were sweet and spirited, witches who were nightmares.

Each year was different, but always, always witches.

Queen Sap understood the sisters passion for the season perhaps a little more, but she also found it completely baffling. She’d once made the mistake of coming to the house the night before and never had she seen three such changed witches. There was a fire in their eyes unlike anything she had ever known and they hardly kept still for a moment as she, their Queen, tried to tell them about… well, but the end of it she couldn’t even remember why she’d come in the first place.

She also - somehow - found herself with six pumpkins in her arms and a carving knife.

After that she left Daphne, Tulip and Lilac alone for the whole of October. Better, she decided, not to risk it.

This year, however, she had received an invite…

End of part 1.

  The Witches is a serial story, published every week on Thursday/Friday. For the week of Halloween, there will be a special week of stories and surprises.