Open Your Eyes - They're Everywhere
“If the doors of perception were cleansed, then everything would appear to man as it is - infinite.” William Blake’s words rang through her mind as Lisa sat in circle, waiting for the High Priestess to anoint her. It was her first closed ritual, the first time she’d worked with her sisters since being initiated into the Coven of the Golden Goose. She’d studied long and hard to earn the right to be here and she couldn’t help but feel excited to be part of the Inner Circle at last.
Ella knelt down before her, smiling, happy that Lisa was with them. “Close your eyes,” she told her and Lisa obeyed. “We call upon Queen Mab to bless our sister with second sight that she may penetrate the Mysteries. Blessed be!”
“Blessed be,” chorused the coven. Lisa felt something cold slicked over her eyelids, which began itching almost immediately. She instinctively put up her hand to rub her eye and Jo sitting next to her caught her arm before she could wipe both.
“If you rub it off before it’s had a chance to do its job, it won’t work,” she whispered.
Having treated every Coven sister with the flying ointment, Ella set the jar on the altar and turned to face the group. She raised her arms and cried to the Heavens.
“We call upon our beloved Queen Mab, Queen of the Fey, she who knows the secrets of eternal youth and eternal beauty. Join with us, teach us, guide us, let us be one with you, now and forever, that we may know you better. So mote it be!”
“So mote it be.”
Ella began talking the group down into a guided meditation, but Lisa was having trouble focusing. Ella wouldn’t tell her what was in the ointment; it was “oath bound” for third degree only, but from the smell Lisa was pretty certain that ginger was one of the ingredients - and she was allergic to it. She’d managed to get some into her eye and her right eye was streaming. It was impossible for her to remain all calm and relaxed. She desperately tried to ignore the irritation, but it was no use and she felt bitterly disappointed as Ella took the Coven through the grounding exercise at the end of the visualisation. She’d been looking forward to the ritual for so long - they were going to be talked through a visit to the Otherworld and an audience with the Queen - and now it seemed as if the only difference between this one and the ones she’d attended pre-initiation was the flying ointment and her allergies meant that she was less of a participant now she was truly part of the Coven, not more.
She tried not to let her disappointment show as they tucked into the post ritual feast. “Try some of this herb bread,” Ella told her. “It’s really good for grounding and it’s important after an experience like the one you’ve just had to be fully grounded - you never know what might happen if you don’t leave the magick behind in the circle.”
Lisa thanked her and accepted some of the bread, despite not having much of an appetite. Listening to her sisters excitedly discuss the experiences they’d just had, she’d never felt so alone, which was the last thing she’d expected when she’d first started training with the Coven. Everyone talked about how it was just like a homecoming and that’s what it had felt like when she first found the group. She’d thought that initiation would bring her closer to the women she considered to be family, but instead she felt further away.
“Cheer up,” said a voice beside her. “You never know what’s going to happen next and self-pity is such an unattractive trait.”
Lisa turned to see a small man at her elbow, his arms and legs disproportionately narrow and long. He winked at her and vanished.
“Whu-what? Did you see that?” Lisa asked Jo.
“See what?”
Although she was surrounded by women who claimed to have supernatural experiences all the time, something told Lisa that it would be better if she didn’t share this particular vision. “Oh, nothing. I thought I saw something, but it was just one of those optical illusions out of the corner of your eye.”
Jo smiled. “You sometimes get those after a good ritual. It’s perfectly normal. Magick is all around us!”
Lisa wondered for a moment whether she could trust Jo, but before she could say anything more, Ella had called them all back into a circle to formally close the ritual.
“The circle is open and yet remains eternal in our hearts. Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!”
“Merry part!”
Lisa didn’t live far from Ella and the walk home was usually quiet, which she liked. It gave her the opportunity to think about whatever they’d covered during a training session or go over the ritual they’d done. Tonight it was different though. She found herself having to weave her way past all sorts of strange creatures. A group of children ran giggling past her chasing a ball. A chill ran down her spine when she realised that their eyes were completely black and the ball looked decidedly like a severed head, but she told herself not to be so silly. Clearly they were wearing contact lenses and the ball was one of those novelties left over from Hallowe’en and besides, what were their parents thinking, letting them out so late at night?
An imperious woman pushed past her followed by a girl dressed in rags sobbing her heart out. Around her neck was a collar and the woman was yanking on the chain attached to it to pull the girl along.
“I wouldn’t interfere if I were you,” came a vaguely familiar voice. The man Lisa had seen at the ritual was walking next to her. “There’s nothing you can do to help her and it’ll only end badly for you if you try.”
Lisa opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it and closed it again.
“So you’re the new girl with the Coven of the Golden Goose,” the man observed. Lisa didn’t know what to say to that. She’d taken a vow not to reveal who she was working with unless she had the express permission of the Covener in question, but she had seen him in circle, so he clearly already knew about the Coven and what they did. “Ella’s getting desperate.”
“Hey!” protested Lisa. “I earned my place.”
The man laughed. “Nobody said you didn’t. And you’ve just outed yourself, my dear. What’s the phrase from the oath again? ‘I promise not to reveal the names of my sisters, not even if under the threat of torture. Verily, verily, lordy, lady.’
Lisa tried not to laugh, but his impression of Ella was spot on, right down to the melodramatic way she called upon the Lord and Lady.
“Don’t worry,” the man assured her. “I won’t be telling anyone and besides, I’ve been keeping an eye on our friend Ella for a while now. Some of the things she’s been doing have attracted the attention of certain… parties, shall we say, and I’ve been tasked with watching over her, make sure that she doesn’t make too much mischief.”
“Ella knows what she’s doing. She’s an experienced High Priestess.”
“Checked out her lineage did you?”
“Well, no, of course not. That would be rude. But everyone always says how great she is and I’m sure she wouldn’t lie about her training.”
The man chuckled. “You keep telling yourself that dear. So here’s your random question of the night. Which eye can you see me in?”
Lisa was taken aback by the strangeness of the question. She shut her right eye, but could still see his strange grin before her. She switched to her left and suddenly he’d vanished, along with all the other peculiar people walking down the street. “That’s really weird!” she exclaimed, alternating between eyes, fascinated by how he appeared and disappeared. “I can only see you out of my left eye.”
“We’ll soon fix that,” he promised. He stepped forward, reaching up to her face. The last thing she remembered was his thumb closing in on her left eye and then the pain, oh, the pain…
Lisa bolted upright. She was in her own bed and the morning sun was forcing its way through the crack in the curtains. She put her hand up to her face and was relieved to find that her eyes were both intact. Her relief was short lived as she realised that she was completely blind in her left eye. She ran out of the room, screaming for her mother, while the unseen watcher sitting at the end of her bed chuckled to himself, a sound that would have chilled you to the bone if only it were audible to human ears.