The warnings my mother gave me are far beyond what the typical woman experiences. Instead of predatory men lurking around trying to catch their next meal, I deal with otherworldly forces beyond the imaginings of others. Crystals, vials of salt, ancient markings burned into my skin repel these creatures, but they don’t hide me from the knowledge of bad intentions. Their malice is made known through their soulless stares, yearnings for the kind of revenge creatures like these cannot accomplish.

Today, on all hallows eve, things may change. I don’t know what these changes may entail, but I make sure to bring more crystals with me. The walk from school to home is around five minutes. Every second is an opportunity.

I take my messenger bag and hold it close. The October wind never fails to chill my bones. As the messanger, the invisible force can carry words from time to time. This time it spoke of nothing.

When I turned the corner, black smoke materialized from the earth. I ignore it. The closest it can be to me is about thirty feet with the many items of protection I have on hand. I thought of the English homework I had to do, remembered a project due at the end of the week. School was all my brain could focus on.

Until I felt heavy breathing.

I turned my head and was met with endlessly white eyes. Their presence made sweat bead on the back of my neck. My hand wraps around a vial of salt, an inky black hand pulls it away.

“My daughter…” It’s unfamiliar, feminine voice pleaded to me. “Please…”

The creature seemed on the brink of tears.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know where she is. Maybe she’s in a graveyard somewhere, looking for you.” I gave all the sympathy I could in hopes to subside her rage. “I wish you well.”

I pulled its hand away. A searing tingle replaces the sensation. When I get home, I’ll have to enchant my satchel bag with a protection spell.

“No!”

I am pulled onto the ground by my ponytail. The back of my head throbbed as if my brain was one big metronome. Stuck in a damaged, painful rhythm. I heard the gentle noise of glass shattering. My eyes closed.

“My daughter. Please.” The words filtered through me when I wake up inside my home. Everything was quiet. The precise neatness around me without the chaos of my busy mother fills my stomach with a rotting feeling. I head upstairs for enchantments.

We store them in a particular closet next to the bathroom, which is where most accidents needing magical remedies happen. It’s small space is concealed from guests, and the only place not as organized as my mother would prefer it to be. I opened it.

Her body, with an arm outstretched in desperation, was encased in stone. Her jaw is slack, her call to me barely escaping from her tongue. I gasped.

Maybe the artifacts were more useless than I thought. So much more than a protection spell was neeed to fix this.