A Witch's Bad Day

Children run down the streets in their costumes gathering sweets in the dusk cool autumn air. In certain homes on the outskirts and various parts of the city, the males give away candy, while their wives and female family members gather together in a sacred ceremony.

Women gather in various costumes some dressed in traditional black hats, black dresses, and pointed black shoes or other gothic similar variations. Others wear garbs of different eras or even more modern clothing and some even go for more futuristic looks. But female present wears attires that are associated with a word hardly spoken in modern day, "Witches."

An older woman wearing the traditional black garb raises her hand with a broom in hand. "Welcome Sisters to our annual gathering!" The woman smiles and laugh with each other in recognition of each other. The elders float up into the sky above them including the elder speaker.

One of the younger members, a young woman with loose flaxen colored hair and amber colored eyes covers her mouth with her black leather gloved hand to her hide her yawns. Her long sleeve black dress barely reaches past her knees with decorative black tassels at the end of her skirt. Underneath she is wearing comfortable white pants with black cuffs at the end of the pant leg that just the top of her comfortable black boots. An interesting note is that her black hat instead of sticking up as is common is instead folded back giving the black witch hat a more cowboy/adventurers feel. It doesn't help that she has a long black cape and a black and scarf around her neck. A loose weapon chain is wrapped around her waist as is a contain belt holding up a pouch containing tarot/battle cards and other vials.

The young witch blearily leans against her broom to rest to listen to the rest of the annual memorized speech, 23-year-old, Akuji. (Blame her hippy parents for her strange name as they fell in love and got married in Africa, which incidentally lead her to being conceived while on their honeymoon in South Africa. Therefore, as a must, the lovestruck parents decided to name their eldest daughter, Akuji, which ironically means "dead and awake." It certainly sounds even worse in Japanese, which roughly translates to "crime, evil-deed, wickedness." Either way, she was screwed. And that is why anyone who knew her called her, Aku for short.)

Aku had graduated with a degree in chemistry and was currently working as a full-time chemist in a pharmacy lab. She was one of the few witches in the circle with a college degree education and one of the few who truly believed in modern science. It wasn't that she didn't believe in magic, but rather she thought that science was merely an alternate process that viewed the same principles in existence via the opposite end of the spectrum.

Aku almost falls asleep on her broom when a stern voice says, "Now, sisters let us commence the sacred ceremony!" Aku straightens up as the members line up in a neat file and begin to sing as each individual witch draws a magical symbol into the sand, before joining the floating elders in the sky. The witches in the air chant in unison the blessing at being joined, "May the Earth, give you power. May the Moon, be your shield. And may the Sun, be your blade."

The following witch erased the symbol with her broom and then using the opposite end draws the symbol once more. In the meanwhile, the witches down belong that wait in line sing in a mixture of voices ranging from soprano to alto to even tenor in an ancient forgotten tongue, "In the dark of the night, sing to the earth and sun. Loose hair and feet bare, feel the earth dance a'round. Wind at my side hear my call, spirits near and a'fro, heed my words and return t'was lost.

In the dark of the night, sing to the moon and stars. Light and Shadows, lead the way home as we blow into the unknown. Gods of old, listen to our unsung songs and grant us power to go here and a'fro-."

Aku happily moves up the line as the youngest witches recently turned thirteen-year-old's excitedly fidget at the end of the line as they wait for their first-time experience. Finally, Aku's turn comes and with the end of her broom handle draws the symbol of infinity, (lemniscate). The older witches glare at Aku's drawn symbol that holds a double meaning.

Aku swiftly climbs onto her ash wood broom and joins the circle of witches. Finally, the ceremony is over as the last of gathered witches climb into the sky. The witches let out cheers of joy as most glide over to congratulate the newest members to their ranks.

Aku politely congratulates the newcomers lest she later be ratted out for fleeing from her duties. With a happy sigh, Aku glides back to the main house to eat the warm food being prepared by the males. On her way there, Aku spots a group of twelve-year-old girls drawing a pentagram spell circle of sorts. Though the girls were already witches in training they were not yet officially recognized as witches until their thirteenth year.

Aku glides down onto the circle and lands squarely in the middle. Frowning, Aku raises her eyebrow in speculation and impatiently taps her foot against the ground as the girl's pale. "Young ladies, what do you think you are doing?" Aku pointedly asked.

The girls guilty glance down and fidget where they stand. "We just wanted to join in," one of the girls quietly replied.

Aku sighs and says, "It's only one more year and you will be able to. Hurry up and dismantle the spell circle before any of your mothers see this." The girls hastily move forward, when a young girl of twelve years excitedly runs around the corner shouting, "I found it!" The girl suddenly trips, and the blue vial hurtles towards the air to lands squarely on the summoning circle.

Aku and the girls let out sighs of relief as the vial had merely cracked onto the pentagram. Aku takes a step forward, when the ground literally vanishes from underneath Aku. Aku lets out a string of curses as she falls through the glowing earth into the dark void down below. A second later, the summoning circle vanishes without a trace as the girls let out identical groans, "Uh oh." "We're so dead," murmured one of the girls for emphasis.

*

Aku gapes for in wonderment at the almost oceanic feel of the sea of stars before her. Suddenly from among the stars three paths appear before her. The path to her left holds countless wealth, the path to the right holds countless knowledge, but the path in the middle was the only one with a door. Aku tries to swim towards the door, when she hears a booming chuckle.

Aku curls up in pain at the booming voice that says, "An interesting choice. Here a parting gift for your troubles." Before Aku can express her vehement protests, a giant claw extends forward, that bursts into giant, glass shards that hurtle sharply towards Aku. Aku raises her arms to cover her face as the shards painfully pierce her. Aku let's a cry of pain as she finds herself plummeting through a void and painfully being swallowed into the abyss as everything goes dark.

With a loud groan, Aku, removes her face from the hard ground. Aku has a blistering headache as she tries to recall, her present location. Like watching an old movie screen film, Aku's memories play in her mind to reveal the horrifying black and white ending. Aku scramble sot her feet as she grabs her broom at her side and glances upward. grabs her broom and climbs to her feet as she widely glances around.

Aku chokes as she stares at the blue sky that has two different colored moons in the sky. The medium sized moon is an oceanic green and the smallest moon is the same size as that of Earth's moon, a normal silver moon in the sky. Aku lets out a string of curses until she runs out of breath. "Worst Hallow's Eve EVER!" Aku thought to herself.

Panting, Aku rolls her sleeve up and narrows her eyes as a glowing red spellcasting pentagram appears before her. A black ooze suddenly erupts to take shape until a female figure stands before her.

Chin-length raven black hair with a pair of goat ram horns on either side of her head that gently upward. Violet eyes, flawless skin, a gorgeous face with cherry red lips that are titled in a seductive smile. There is a red Asian style dress that clings to her large breasted curved body. The red dress is closed at the neck, but leaves the back and shoulders bare. The red dress is slit open at the side seams all the way from the armpit area to the full length of the dress. A black undress can be seen underneath for modesty's sake, which does not leave much for to the imagination. The black undress only reaches up to the upper-thigh.

The demon beauty licks her lips and winks. "Ne, ne," the female demon excitedly said as she licked her lips lasciviously. "Master, I've missed you!" The female demon said as she threw herself at Aku.

Aku slams the heel of her boot in her familiar's face and glares at the succubus who pouts as she rubs her bruised nose. "Lilin, please have a look around and tell me what you see," Aku snapped.

Lilin rolls her eyes and studies as her mouth flops open. "Master, what happened to you? You're practically oozing with power!" Lilin shrieked. Lilin lean's in and stiffs as lust fills her eyes. "I haven't smelled this strong of magic, since, the good old days," Lilin murmured as she takes a deep sniff as her violet eyes become silently reddish. "Yes, this is the smell of a Witch Queen, but the last Witch Queen died a thousand years ago."

"I thought so," Aku grumbled as she remembered the giant talon. An old god or even perhaps an elder dragon? Either way, it was none of her business.

Lilin lustfully drools at the scent of mana emitting from Aku. Aku narrows her eyes at the idiot succubus. Times like these made her wonder, why she had contracted with the idiot succubus in the first place. (Despite, the contract explicitly forbidding Lilin from eating human souls and life force, but alas Aku had forgotten to add the clause preventing the consumption of human's auras or sexual vitality.)

After a long moment, Aku finally recalls the reason why she had made a soul contract with the idiot demoness. It was all to gain access to succubus precise magic control. For being literal whores, succubi were excellent magicians and aides in potion crafting.

"Master, when can I get a girl's night out?" Lilin innocently asked completely ignoring Aku's initial order.

"I'll let you out for a full night's length the first chance I get," Aku snapped back. But of course, there were always loops holes that demon found and exploited, like ignoring their master's question just now.

Lilin eagerly pants and says, "Yes, master. When?"

Aku narrows her eyes in warning Lilin not to push her. Lilin head droops and she sadly muses to herself, "Master was so cute back then with short hair. I thought for master was a boy. Ne, ne, I should have read the fine print."

Aku snorts at her familiar's pity party. "You would have eaten my soul if not for the explicit magical soul binding contract between us. And secondly, you're the little slut who was too excited to eat me in the biblical tense that you missed inspecting all of the soul binding clauses in the soul contract in the first place," Aku retorted.

Lilin hurtfully blinks her eyes and replies, "But, Master, I was hungry," and licks her lips for emphasis.

Aku rolls her eyes and says, "Like, I already said, take another look around at our surroundings?"

Lilin almost salivates at the open-ended question. "But if master should deem it important, I could venture out and learn more of the outside world," Lilin innocently cooed as she eagerly wiggles her bum in excitement.

"I didn't mean it like that! Just take a look around us, you idiot!" Aku roared.

Lilin sniffs unhappily with feelings hurt and sullenly pouts for a good while, before glances around as her mouth flops open. "Master, where have you brought me?" Lilin loudly exclaimed.

"Lilin, test something out for me and try to return back to hell," Aku ordered.

Lilin rolls her eyes and returns back to hell. Lilin's eyes fly wide open as she finds she cannot. Lilin glances at her Master with troubled eyes.

"I thought so. It would seem that not only are we in another world, but in a entire completely different universe as well. For the time being, it will be impossible to return to Earth and for you, Hell for that matter," Aku murmured.

Lilin stomps her foot against the ground and says, "Then, what are we going to do now?"

"That is an excellent question, but for now let's find shelter for the night," Aku said as she climbed onto her broom. Lilin takes her witches familiar form an exquisite emerald snake with violet eyes. The emerald snake with ease slither's onto Aku's broom to finally perch around the upper end. The emerald snake flicks her tongue as Aku darts into the air. Either way, Aku would find a way and when she did she would dance on those little brats graves!