The next morning, Helene reluctantly dialed the number on the card.
"Hello?" He picked up after the first ring.
"It's Helene." She told him and heard a relieved sigh on the other end of the line.
"I am so glad you called." He told her in earnest.
"I need more information, before I make any rash decisions." She stated and he told her he understood completely.
"What job would I be given?" She asked.
"We have many different jobs. Maybe you would like to work in our garden, or we have a bookstore opening." He told her and she quite liked the sound of working in a bookstore.
"Or you could work in the pub." He kept listing off jobs.
"I like the sound of the bookstore." She told him and there was a brief pause on the other end of the line.
"I will hold it for you then." He told her and she felt a little relieved knowing that she would at least have a job she enjoyed.
"Can I speak to someone else, someone who can tell me what it is really like?" She asked and she heard Gerard chuckle down the line.
"Do I not know what it is really like?" He asked and she began to backtrack.
"No, that's not what I meant." He continued to chuckle as she floundered.
"There is someone I would like you to meet. Her name is Anne. You would be living in her house." He told her and she nodded.
"I would like to meet her."
---
Anne had never been trusted with a newbie before. She was so excited. Although she had felt welcomed when she had moved from her coven in New Orleans, she had never been given any true responsibility. But now, she felt a sense of family she had not experienced for a long time.
Helene felt her hands shake as she walked into the coffee shop. She froze when she saw a girl waving over to her. She looked as if she had been peeled off the cover of a magazine. Her skin was deep and her hair exploded in a cloud around her face. When she got closer, Helene felt a little intimidated by her beauty, she had the kind of lips people paid big bucks for.
But any intimidation she felt melted away when the girl stood and pulled her into an embrace.
"Oh you poor child! You look like a deer in the headlights!" She cried out in a southern drawl that Helene had not been expecting. They sat and Anne introduced herself.
"I am so glad to meet you. I wish we could have met the other night, but I guess it was an awful lot to take in." She smiled over in a way that made Helene feel like she understood exactly what she was going through.
"I just feel confused." She sighed, leaning back in her chair.
"I felt the same way. But covens in the States are different. They buy out big duplexes and each witch has an apartment. They all live together, but no plain people know." She told her.
"It felt like a cult to me. So, I ran away and that's how I ended up here." This was the second story Helene had heard of witches being taken in by the coven.
"I was going to go to London. But the covens there, they are not on good terms with the locals. There are fights and feuds, and I just wasn't looking for that. So, then I came across this coven, recommended by a guy in London, and it was so different. They work with the local communities and we can have our own work and our own houses, as long as we live with other creatures, not plain people." It seemed that Anne liked to talk just as much as Helene, if not more and Helene was more than happy to listen to her all day.
"It is a good coven. We care for each other, but we have our own lives." Helene thought that Gerard had been smart, sending their best salesman. She was sure that Anne could have sold her into the gates of hell that afternoon.
Helene asked Anne about how she had been awoken, wanting to learn more about her.
"I was so shocked when I was awoken. It was whilst my Granny was dying and these big men knocked on my parents' door and told me I had to go away. They knew, they never told me, but they knew. Because they let me go. I was sixteen years old." Helene felt her mind race, did her Mum know what she was? She let her head fall into her hands.
"Do I have a choice?" She asked in desperation.
"I don't recommend going rouge. I heard of a girl who tried it and they tied her to a stake and lit her up quicker than you could imagine." Anne remembered aloud.
"They killed her?!" Helene asked in shock and horror.
"We are witches. It is only natural for us to live in covens." She said matter of factly.
"Take my advice: join the coven. You will not be able to outrun the powers that be and we will take care of you. You can live with me." She told her and for the first time, Helene felt as if maybe this wasn't all as disastrous as she had once thought.
"Ok." It had left her mouth before she had realised.
"Ok?" Anne asked with so much excitement in her voice that Helene couldn't help being excited.
"Ok."
---
She couldn't get what Anne had said out of her mind. Helene sat in her childhood home, across from her mum. She needed to know if she knew, and if not then her Mum would think she was utterly crazy. But she needed to know.
"Mum, have I ever been different?" She asked and watched as the blood drained from her Mum's face.
"Why would you say that?" She asked, her voice a little shaky. Helene felt her lower lip begin to tremble.
"Did you know?" She asked and her mum placed down her teacup.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She denied.
"You're lying to me." Helene stated simply and her Mum looked into her cup of tea.
"Has it happened?" She asked and Helene sighed.
"Yes." She watched her Mum break, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"I thought it might never happen." She whispered and Helene couldn't believe that she had known all this time.
"They came to me when you were born. They told me you had the blood, that one day you would change. I was just waiting. I was so happy when you got to eighteen and it hadn't happened." She cracked a sad smile. Helene moved to sit beside her mum, taking her hand. She had to fight now to hold back tears.
"But I'm not going anywhere Mum, it's just in the city." She told her and her Mum shook her head.
"It's not that, you're not like us anymore." She pulled her hand away and Helene saw a fear in her eyes. She pulled back, heartbroken that her Mum was afraid of her.
"I'm still your daughter." She defended herself, suppressing her tears now.
"Yes, and I will always love you. But you belong to them now." The way she said 'them' made Helene cringe. How could she have so quickly become a creature that her Mum didn't recognise? She left feeling as if her life would never be the same.
Gerard was ecstatic when he got the update from Anne. He immediately called Ivan.
"I need you to deal with the sister. Tell her that Helene has to move away to study." He hoped that this would be the last loose end to tie, and that Helene could join the coven as soon as possible.
"Is she coming?" Gabbi bubbled with anticipation.
"Yes, she is." Gerard announced and she celebrated with a little dance that made Gerard chuckle.
Helene pondered how she would break the news to her sister on the bus journey home. She felt a deep seated guilt in the pit of her stomach. She was thrusting so much responsibility on her sister, leaving her with the rent and the bills, it made her feel rotten.
When she got home, she was confused to find Steph so happy. She bounded over to her.
"I'm so proud of you!" She bundled her up in a hug.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" She scolded her in a sisterly way and Helene felt as if she was losing her mind.
"I'm sorry." Was all she could think to say.
"Why apologise! It is amazing you're finally going to get your Masters! And you can finally live in the city like you wanted to." She beamed and Helene sensed some witch foolishness afoot.
"What will you do about the rent?�� She asked, feeling that guilt once again.
"Oh don't worry about that. I've given the notice in. I'll move to a one bed in a few weeks." Helene wondered if Steph had really spoken to the landlord or if Ivan had also convinced him that he would let them move out so abruptly.
Steph soon left for a work dinner and Helene sat on the sofa, staring at the blank TV screen. How had they gotten control of her life so quickly? It scared her how they had managed to sort everything before she could even conceive of all the problems. She guessed they had years of experience in this kind of thing. She let her head fall into her hands. How had life become so complicated so quickly? Before she knew it, she had fallen into a deep slumber, her head laid against the sofa cushions.