Cassandra Morrow

21 December 2017 - Winter Solstice
Pacific Junction, Iowa, USA

On the longest night of the year, witch Cassandra Morrow stood in her backyard at a stone basin. It might have looked like a birdbath if there was anyone there to look, but most birdbaths have no need of the circle of runes marking the edges and basin here. The night was frigid but dry. Cassie held her carhartt coat closed and was still in her fleece-lined leggings and uggs. She looked up at the cloudy sky reflecting the lights of the town, then with a breath brought her gaze down to the water. It rippled. And she saw something: something clear, something unmistakable. It was a vision.

The cosmos. The earth. The earth holds the sun and the moon like twins. A white crane dips her long beak into a still pond and creates ripples. In the pond, a girl with straw-colored hair is sinking like a stone. She opens her mouth to cry out, but only light and her own skeleton emerge. The light from inside her splinters into points of light and make a constellation in the pond. The constellation is Leo, minus his head, which the goblins call the Coffin.[1]

Cassie looks into the pool twice more, seeking more and the vision is the same each time. Unsettled, she goes inside and draws and writes what she sees in a notebook, so she won't forget it. She dreams on its possible meaning and finds only self-doubt and dread.

1.

This was rewritten some time later to better align with the plot. Here is the original for posterity: The cosmos. The earth. The earth holds the sun and the moon like twins. A girl with straw-colored hair, safely sleeps. She lights a lantern, she takes a step, she falls into water but does not drown. Her bones crawl out of her skin as if onto shore. The skin swallows the light from the lantern. The light coming from inside through the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears become stars in the sky, a constellation. The skeleton tries, but she can't see, cry, or feel her way out of the dark.