Some of them Witches

Chapter 9

The following morning brought the message Marianne stayed up dreading all night.

We need to talk. It glared at her from the lock screen notifications on her phone.

Her essentials were already all packed up. She could just leave, forget about the rest. Start over on her own, like she probably should have done from the beginning, when she came back from service. Why did you come back here? The internal debate was pointless, she had come back and made a life here. She owed it to that life to get some closure, even if it didn't come from the one person she needed it from the most.

Marianne made her way slowly to the house, but once she reached the sliding door, could not bring herself to open it as she had done so many times before. Instead, she went around to the front door and rang the bell.

Violet answered the door with a solemn matriarchal magnificence Marianne had long admired. She had a powerful build like Gabriel-Vital Dubray's Penthesilea from her years of competitive swimming, accented by her love of wearing clothing that always looked like she was either on her way to or from the gym. Virginia had told her that she and Violet were actually half-sisters from different marriages, to explain their 14 year age gap and little resemblance, the likeness between them only in their height and blonde hair. Where the younger's face was all sharp with 1980's androgyny, Violet's was astoundingly 1950's feminine with her rounded high cheekbones and arched eyebrows over grass-green eyes.

They silently made their way to the dining table where they every so often met for family dinners or to discuss business and took their usual seats. Marianne put her clasped hands on the wood so they were in full view of Violet, rather than obscured by the tabletop. It was meant to put the other woman at ease but the moment her skin touched its surface, she could feel every part of the house, like it and everything in it was one entity which resonated with each tiny imperceptible movement within. Marianne could feel Lily's feet at the top of the stairs, her hands on the railing, and gathered she was attempting to listen to their conversation. It felt like Marianne's intuition. Only she hadn't summoned it.

In fact, she was so distracted by the unfamiliar sensation that she momentarily forgot her reason for being in the house until Violet interrupted the onslaught.

"You know why I asked you to come here so before I get into that, is there anything you want to say?"

There were so many things but only one of them mattered. "I'm sorry about last night. There's no excuse." Marianne would love to have an excuse, to say it was Violet's fault for lying or Virginia's for leaving, but it didn't matter. Did she ask you not to tell me? Marianne had asked herself and realized it didn't matter either. It changed nothing.

Violet sighed, "I've thought it over and you're not fired or anything like that." Marianne could only reply with stunned silence. "That being said," she continued, making Marianne's stomach turn, "I don't see how you can keep living here." This she did expect. "You have to understand Lily is the most important person in the world to me. I would do anything to protect her..." the other woman inhaled deeply, "Even if it's from you." She regarded Marianne coldly, making her feel even more the outsider. "You can stay here until you find somewhere else to live and I'll keep sending you assignments. Maybe when Vee returns, we can revisit it."

Feeling herself dismissed, Marianne stood. She moved to exit through the sliding door when Lily ran loudly down the stairs, Huckleberry hot on her heels.

"So you're just kicking her out?"

"Lily, go back to your room," ordered Violet.

"No!" She clenched her fists. "I'm not scared of Marianne!" she shouted. "Are you scared of her? Or aunt Vee, or--or me?"