6IT WAS AROUND ten 'o clock, when her parents and her younger brother had gone to sleep, that Gwyn started setting up for the spell she was going to perform tonight.
She lit the candles that she had set up at the corners of her salt pentacle before she turned off her lights and she sat in the center of the star with the bowl of Irish moss and nutmeg that she had crushed together. It actually wasn't necessary for her to have the Irish moss and the nutmeg, but she figured it would enhance the spell.
All she truly needed was a full moon and the moon was radiant and full tonight, the eve of her freshman year.
She had already opened her circle and consecrated her sacred space. Now, it was time to recite her incantation.
She closed her eyes and said, "Lady of Luck, in my favor turn your wheel of fortune. Bless me brilliantly as this blessed moonlight tonight. Merry meet and merry part."
A second after reciting the spell, a powerful gust of wind surged through Gwyn's opened window and blew out the candles. She now sat, a little frightened, in the dark.
The wind howled and she heard a faint diabolical cackling swirl past her.
She sprang to her feet. "Who's there?" she interrogated the darkness.
No one answered, of course not. But the silence was making her feel uneasy.
She put her right hand above her left and conjured a bright ocean blue energy sphere in between the empty space of her palms. The eerie blue light was somehow comforting and illuminated her darkened room. The energy sphere floated slightly above her right hand and she aimed it and prepared herself to launch it at any threat that would present itself.
"Whatever you are . . . get out of here," she hissed.
She heard the voice laugh at her again and she flung the energy sphere at where she thought she heard it come from. It ended up hitting her bedpost and crystallizing her bedpost. She wasn't sure how she would explain to her parents how the Ice Age suddenly came in and hit her bedpost first.
The wind suddenly seemed to roar past her and retreated through her opened window. She rushed over to her window and looked out. She saw a figure, a shadow perhaps, cloaked in back. It suddenly vanished before her very eyes, but it left her with an ominous feeling.
She shut her window and ran for her bed. She pulled the covers over her and tucked herself in, until she could hardly breathe behind the fabric. She whispered a prayer to the goddess Diana.
"I invoke thee, Diana, Goddess of the Moon, for your protection tonight."
A second later, she was able to fall asleep easily.