Season of the Witch

I startled from my sleep, panting heavily as I recognized my surroundings. I was on the couch in the living room. It was dark and a blanket had been drawn over my body. Rain pattered on the windows and a bang came from the kitchen. I jumped up and held the blanket around my shoulder with one hand and searched in the darkness for a weapon.

"Oh shit," came a high-pitched voice from the kitchen. Terrified, I grabbed a cork coaster from the coffee table and stalked toward the kitchen door. Slowly, my heart racing, I pushed the swinging door open and threw the coaster at the first person I saw. "Ow!" Jimmy shouted. "Mother fuck! Why in bloody Hell did you throw that?"

I sighed with relief. Jimmy was picking up the bread tin he had apparently dropped and wasn't doing anything Black Magic-y like I had feared. Rubbing his lower back, he placed the bread tin on the counter and gave a sharp, painful breath.

"Why did you throw a bloody coaster at me?" he repeated. He bent over and grabbed the coaster and set it on the counter. "Oh, well it's definitely bloody now, isn't it? Real fucking bright, you schmuck. My back is killing."

"I'm so sorry," I apologized sincerely, trying to suppress a chuckle. "Crazy dream-- I didn't want to take any chances."

"You haven't had a crazy dream until you've done Cocaine and fallen asleep afterwards," Jimmy laughed, then became serious after realizing he had revealed information he hadn't planned to share. "Forget that." He sat at the island and patted the chair next to him. "Come tell Papa what scared you. After you've told me, then I'll beat you for throwing that fucking coaster.... joking of course."

I smiled and sat beside him. We didn't turn the chairs, but Jimmy swiveled his body to face me and I stared at the open stove on the far wall of the kitchen opposite me. "Well," I began without hesitation, "you were in it." A shudder raked my body when Jimmy calmly set his hand on my knee. I looked at him and he held a steady gaze as if he didn't realize his hand was where it was. I cleared my throat and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. "Anyway, you were in the dream and you were possessed over this weird Black Magic- Witchcraft anchor-shaped symbol you had--" Jimmy's hand slid a few centimeters up my leg and I froze.

"I do dabble in Occult," Jimmy said. "It sounds like the Cross of Salem; it can be good or it can be possessively bad. That may be what it was. Zoso is an Occult symbol, as well."

"Really?" I asked, watching Jimmy out of the corner of my eye. "What does it-- Oh!" Jimmy placed his hand on my inner thigh and I began to shake and shiver. "Jimmy--"

"I told Leenin to go home. You were asleep and I didn't want him to make dinner if you were going to sleep. We'll eat left-overs. Do you know what I want to do right now?"

"I have a guess," I breathed as Jimmy rubbed his hand up and down the length of my thigh teasingly.

"Really? I want to get," he whispered in my ear now, "high. Name your drug and we'll do it. I have Cocaine, Acid, Wacky-Tabacky, and Heroin."

"Is none of the above and option?" I asked, pushing away his face and the nauseating smell of Jack with it.

"Pick one or we could just fuck."

"You're a real catch. Bianca is a lucky woman," I hissed sarcastically.

"Come on," Jimmy begged, retracting his hand. "Don't be a Sore Sally."

I sighed. "We can do the grass, but that is it!" I pointed a finger at him. "And you're giving up Heroin. That stuff is nasty-bad!"

To both my luck and my relief, the sound of the front door opening and closing with bodies in the foyer rang through the house; John Paul and Bianca were home and I was free of my Page Trance (Page Rage, if you will). I smirked at him and he frowned, then winked and excused himself from the kitchen.