The Witch's Key

Episode 1: You Never Really Forgot

They buried my parents on a Friday, and by Saturday afternoon, I was on my way to live with an uncle I barely knew in a town I'd never heard of before in my life.

Well, technically he was my great uncle.

Martin Thorne.

I'd only met him a handful of times when he'd come to visit my dad on official "family business", as they liked to call it. Back then, the family business just meant that the grownups would close the door and speak in hushed tones.

In a way, I wished they'd never opened that door and told me what it was they really did for a living. I didn't want to know the truth, anymore, and I definitely didn't want to go live with a family member who had been a Keeper for most of his life.

Why couldn't they send me to live with a relative who knew nothing about witches or vampires or demons? Why couldn't they send me to live with someone normal?

To be honest, Uncle Martin had always creeped me out. There was just something off about his tall, thin frame and translucent skin. He'd once put a bony hand on my arm, and I'd recoiled at the blue veins pulsing underneath the surface of his skin.

In my mind, I'd always thought of him as "the dying man", because he'd been so quiet and old. So barely there and weak.

But in the end, it was my parents who died first, and it was Uncle Martin who had become my rock.

I missed them so much, even now, it sometimes felt like my chest would cave in on my heart, crushing it beneath the weight of my grief.

"Lenora?"

A light knock on the door accompanied the soft, careful voice on the other side.

I swiped at the tear on my cheek and turned over in the small twin bed that had been mine now for the past three months.

Couldn't I just skip my senior year? Take classes online? Avoid all normal human interaction forever?

Another knock, and this time the door creaked open just a crack.

"Lenora, have you seen the time, sweetheart? I have some breakfast ready for you downstairs."

With a sigh, I sat up and turned toward my soft-spoken Great Uncle Martin.

I'd been living with him now for an entire summer. It turned out he wasn't actually creepy at all. He was more like a sweet teddy bear, and I couldn't even fathom the thought of leaving the comfort of his calming presence to enter the world of regular teenagers.

Talk about creepy.

"I can't do it," I said, shaking my head. "There's just no way."

Martin's eyes sparkled with compassion. "May I come in?"

"Of course."

He always asked before he came into my room, which I always appreciated. I was the intruder in his home, and yet he acted like I'd always belonged here.

"I understand how difficult this is," he said. "But it's a chance for a fresh start. Besides, this is part of the condition the Council placed on allowing you to stay with me."

"Which I totally don't understand," I said, a tiny spark of anger igniting in my chest. "Why does the Council suddenly care so much about my high school education? It's not like they cared when my parents were alive. I've never had to go to a normal school before. Why now?"

"You know as well as I do that the Council doesn't always give reasons for their proclamations or their rules," he said. "But if I had to wager a guess, I'd say they want you to get a taste of normal life before you make any kind of decision about whether to take their test at the end of the year."