Arrival

Inside, the cabin was deceptively spacious compared to how it looked from the outside. Katherine placed the man on the long rectangular kitchen table that stood in front of the old hearth fireplace. As the stove and fireplace lit themselves giving the cabin warmth, the water kettle took itself out of the cabinet to make tea for its master.

Not bothering to change out of her wet clothes, the witch hurried to her cabinets and started pulling out a variety of herbs and tools to save the young man dying on her kitchen table. First, cleaning the wound, she thought. Grabbing a bucket with water, and some cloths Katherine went to work carefully cleaning in and around the opened hanging flesh that now had a black goo-like substance oozing from the wounds. Swiping her finger on his chest to take a close look at it, "hmm, must be infected" she said while rubbing the black substance between her fingers.

She cleaned his chest of all the blood and black goo but she didn't stop there, the young woman proceeded to clean the marks she had made in blood on his tanned skin. As she was cleaning his face Katherine paused for a minute to admire the man. Now that she had cleaned all the dirt off he looked much younger than what she initially thought him to be. He looked to be in his late 20's with long light brown hair that reached his shoulders and a muscular build. She let her eyes linger a bit too long on his sharp jaw line, before they made their way to his long neck and shoulder muscles.

Katherine shook her head as if to bring it back from her admiration, moving on she made a paste of herbs, salt, and a green antiseptic liquid. She worked the paste in and around the clean wounds and wrapped him up with strips of clean cloth.

Letting out a long breath as she sat down in a chair she pulled out from the table, Katherine leaned back to admire her handy work. It had been quite a while since she has had to make a healing and purification paste. She then wondered what to do with the man on her kitchen table who still was not conscious.

As if on cue the man gasped for air and sat up too fast hitting his head on the light fixed above the table. Laying back with a groan, holding the front of his head he turned Katherine's direction. With wide eyes and mouth slightly open in shock, Katherine locked eyes with the man who seemingly rose from the dead.

"Fancy meeting you here", the young man said with a flash of his pearly white smile and a spark in his grey eyes.

"I—"Katherine started, but then narrowed her eyes at the man, "This is my house".

Propping himself up on his elbows the man moved his eyes around the cozy cabin before settling them once again on the girl in the wet sundress. Leaning in close to her face the man looked her up and down before holding eye contact, "Are you..a witch?" He asked accusingly.

Katherine tried not to let her face change expressions but her heartbeat spiked. Does he know? She thought, of course he doesn't, humans don't know about the existence of the supernatural. Katherines thoughts ran rampant in her mind when she realized the young mans face was still inches from hers. Not knowing what to do she tilted her chin up to look down on him before she playfully smiled and said "I could curse you if you'd like."

"Yowch!" The man dramatically flung his body backwards grabbing the left side of his chest as if an invisible arrow had been shot through it. Katherine dropped her smile wondering how the man could move so well after being mauled by what looked like a very large bear.

Turning back over to look at the girl who saved his life, the man asked Katherine "Would you like some tea?"

For a second time, Katherine was left with her mouth slightly open standing straight up to tower over the man on the table.

"Once again this is my house!" She shouted with a slight smile of disbelief on her face. Walking over to the stove where the kettle had already boiled, she poured two cups of tea. Turning around, the man had silently gotten off the table and was heading for the front door.

"I thought you wanted tea?" Asked Katherine, this human is so confusing and odd she thought to herself. He turned to look at her, his eyes locked on to hers as she realized she was still in her wet sundress that clung to her every curve. Katherine's cheeks flushed as she stood there painfully aware of how he was looking into her eyes so they didn't wander elsewhere.

"I thought you could use some tea as you seemed a bit cold" he said to her with a coy smile making her heart skip a beat. Where did this man even come from? Katherine thought as she walked over to set the tea cups down on the table. Without another word the man opened the front door to leave, when Katherine realized he wouldn't be able to cross over the salt barrier without her.

"Wait!" She yelled at him, as she turned heel running out the back door. Katherine tried to be quick as she brushed her hand over the salt barrier on the ground to disband the spell around her garden. Grabbing a fistful of flowers as she jumped back through the door into the kitchen, she noticed the man staring at her incredulously. Going straight to the kitchen cabinet pulling out a metal tin, Katherine scraped the ointment from her mortar to put in the tin feeling the man watch her every move.

"You'll need to reapply the ointment to your wounds or they will get infected" Katherine stated while handing him the tin and the flowers she picked, standing close to him so there was nowhere for him to go but outside. As he walked through the front door he turned back around to look down at the girl who seemed much smaller now that the man was off the table standing in front of her. Katherine wished the odd man would just hurry up and leave as her sisters could be arriving any minute.

"I am indebted to you now," The man beamed at Katherine as he place one leg behind the other and curtsied holding the bottom tips of his shredded shorts. Standing straight, he closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath savoring the crisp summer night, his muscular chest expanding taught against the bandages. Katherine watched the man as he confidently made his way down the front steps with his head held high.

As he was half way through the garden she just couldn't help herself.

"Wait!" She called out once again, "I never asked for your name!"

"You're right, you didn't!" He called out over his shoulder with an amused smile on his face sticking his hands in the pockets of his tattered shorts.

"Well what is it?!" The young witch shouted scrunching up her face at the man who didn't stop walking, he continued to slink his way out of the garden past the wooden fence until he disappeared into the dark forest.

Katherine stood on her porch staring out into the darkness where the man had been only moments ago before closing the front door. Taking a seat on the stairs that led to her bedroom, Katherine couldn't help but think about the bizarre events that unfolded that evening. She still had so many questions she didn't get a chance to ask, like what was he doing this far into the forest to begin with? Or what had attacked him? Her biggest concern was that now there was a human wandering around the forest at night wounded and half clothed. She would have offered to guide him out of the forest, but tonight of all nights she had to be here for when her sisters arrived for the solstice ritual.

There was a loud sharp knock on the door breaking Katherine out of her thoughts. She flung the open the door revealing three women dressed in similar looking black dresses.

Katherine watched as the woman standing in front take her sunglass off her pale face to place them on the top of her head of smooth black hair. Squinting her brown eyes, the woman on the porch smiled tightly cracking her red lipstick before saying, "Sorry, we're late"