Melanie]s Magical Woes

By Debbie Aruta

Melanie just wanted a quiet life, her family safe, but every generation of her family is tested by the darkness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Debbie Aruta
• Release date: Feb 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215180396

Debbie Aruta

Debbie is a prolific reader. She enjoys reading fiction and autobiographies. She loves read witch stories and is in love with the magic of everyday life. 

Book preview

Melanie’s Magical Woes

Chapter 1

Melanie sat holding her empty silver box. It was an antique petite box that at one point of her life was filled with ingredients to sustain her mystic powerful potions. Now it lay gently in her hands empty, it lay precariously in her hands as if any second it would fall to the floor and its powers would be lost forever, perhaps shattering into pieces. She held it open gently in her hands and felt her powers she once possessed fluttering out of her forever. She knew her magic came from within, but she always believed perhaps it was the potions she possessed in her silver box that held a much greater magic than she ever could. She stood drained and dazed. Nothing remained in the silver box except the red velvet lining and at that moment despair filled her soul.

She wept as she continued, seeing it devoid of any magical ingredient, she gazed upon her empty silver box. She needed it to be bursting again so that she could remain in this town, this place, and continue to help the people who needed her the most. The lost souls of this city came to her at all hours seeking guidance that only she could give. They would bring her offerings for her help, but she always refused. She gave her powers freely. Well, that is until now. Now her silver box lay empty, and she believed she was empty too. Tears began filling her box where once magical ingredients sat. Her tears came from somewhere deep within, where her magic was and now one by one her tears filled up her silver box up. She cried for all the souls who would remain lost. Those souls would now wander without her help. She was devastated. A witch without magic was of no use to anyone in this town. Melanie felt a sudden panic and cried from her heart shattering and struggled not to collapse in disbelief. Her magic gone! She felt depleted. Her heart broken, just like her box.

She placed the silver box, which now contained nothing but anguish, on the mantle above her small fireplace. Her cauldron still simmering away without her magic mixed in. She turned abruptly on her heels and decided to go for a walk. She wanted to get some perspective on her new life without magic. She grabbed her long red cloak, placed it around her shoulders, put the hood over her head and out she wandered into the misting night, into the dark and damp woods, and into her own mind’s reflections on her life. She needed to get out of this place where she had conjured up so many potions to help others. She couldn’t stand looking at that silver box one more moment. It was filled with tears and nothing more. She had placed it back on the mantle and rushed out the door and soon she was lost in the woods. They always felt more like home then this cabin. She was at ease in nature when her feet were firmly planted in the soil. Her bare soles feeling the earth hum under her heels.

Out on her stroll, Melanie struggled to not let her mind flutter back to that silver box. She wanted to just be alone in her thoughts. Her great-great-great-grandmother was the first witch to own that silver box. It has possessed numerous items for aiding the witches from generation to generation in her family. When her mother gave it to her many moons ago she was just a teenager and she was told to be mindful of the box. To protect her family’s legacy and to only use her magic to aid others and never to harm and to watch that it remains filled with items from the family line. Potions, bottles, oils, all mixed in vials sitting in that box when she received it. She was careful to add feathers, acorns, stones, and other items of this earth to use in her own potions. She was an earthly witch, more so than her mother and grandmother. She herself was a full sage witch. Now sadly the box sat empty before her and was void of magic. She believed her powers were gone, but magic replenished itself without any aid from witches. It was always there when needed and she would soon learn that.

She was strolling absentminded in the woods and before she knew where she was, she had arrived at her sacred area in the woods. This was the place where she gathered items for her silver box so that it always remained full. She was in no mood to collect items, but she tripped over a microscopic stone that glistened in the moonlight. She picked it up, examined it carefully and decided to take it home in her pouch. It almost seemed to hum in her hands, but she still believed her magic was over because the silver box seemed to have lost its magic. It no longer hummed in her hands. Walking back to her cabin she imagined the stone and that it could possibly hold its own magical powers. Maybe, she thought, it was just a rock. Maybe magic did not exist anymore for herself. Perhaps she would just be a regular citizen of this town and could just live as a clerk or something. Melanie cried somber sobs all the way back to her cabin. Clearly magic was in her blood and she had let down her bloodline. She grieved the loss of her magic deeply.

Upon returning to her cabin, she placed her cloak back on the peg behind the front door. She took off her wet boots and looked directly at the silver box. She tried to avoid it but felt pulled towards it. She slowly walked toward it and it felt like she was gliding across the floor. She felt no heavy weight on her emotions anymore. She opened the box and gasped. She was going to supplement her box with this beautiful glowing rock, but there was no room. The box had absorbed her tears and replenished itself. Her potions were full again. She added her last ingredient from the silver box into her cauldron and she knew she was ready for the next lost soul. Melanie had all she needed to replenish the box deep within herself if she only believed in herself. How could she have ever doubted that the magic was inside of her all the time, that she alone possessed what was needed to produce the potions she used to aid the lost souls of this town?  She was filled once again with the hum of magic and felt it coursing through her body. She was now prepared again for the lost souls and her silver box was illuminated from all the tears she shed for her magic. The next person who needed her knocked within minutes and although Melanie was emotionally spent from this ordeal, she knew she had to open the door and aid in any way she could. She was there to help with her magic, to help heal each soul, and to lead a life filled with kindness and service to others.

Was it because Melanie now believed again in magic or the tears, she cried that refilled the silver box? Perhaps the silver box alone is the significant piece to this whole mystical mystery. We will never know, but for now, Melanie and her practicing magic continues. She believed in herself deeply now. She learned to have faith in herself. The box hummed magic all night long and, in the morning, once again, new items appeared and Melanie would smile at each item and knew she would continue to help the lost souls in any way she could.

Chapter 2

Upon the new day’s arrival, Melanie sprang to her silver box, her feet bare, in her black velvet robe, which was draped over her shoulders with her hair flaring behind her. Her eyes were wide with the excitement of what would appear in her silver box next. She swiftly opened the box and gasped as her eyes fell upon an ornate antique silver magnifying glass which hung on an old worn silver tarnished chain. The magnifying glass was about an inch around and on the top, it held an old antique silver medallion. It had the most amazing cerulean and olive jewels encrusted in it. The medallion held her family’s crest on it. The crest was of an old oak tree with a petite, white as snow alicorn flying above it. It was stunning. The medallion gleamed in the light of the new dawn as the sun peeked through a sliver in the long red satin curtains. The chain felt cold and awkward in her in hands. It was as if it had just arrived from another world. Perhaps that world was vile. She shuddered from the sudden chill that went through her whole body. She loved this new piece that had entered her world, but she wasn’t sure it belonged to her.

She walked slowly back into her dark and dreary bedroom. She had an ill feeling deep down in the pit of her stomach and needed to lie down a minute. She carefully wrapped the magnifying glass up in a piece of red silk and placed it gently into her armoire. It lay among the other items waiting for their person or spell. That was the thing with receiving these items, she never knew what they were for until the moment she needed them. A person could show up needing her help and she would then and only then know who the piece was for. Perhaps some person needed a finer sight on something in their life and needed this. She was sure she would soon find out and from the negative feeling she had about the item, she knew this person was not going to be a very upstanding person, but someone who had evil coursing through their veins. It was not for her to decide who to help therefore she helped all who sought her aid.

The cold and dreary feeling she had would not leave her. She lay there, in her immense bed, shivering under her down comforter and wondered if she was getting ill or if the magnifying glass was making her ill. She tossed and turned, but finally drifted off into slumber for a short while. It was anything but a peaceful sleep. She dreamed of mythological demons like Sitri. Sitri is one of the darkest demons, he kept bursting into her dreams spiraling them into nightmares. Melanie awoke with such a fright; she knocked her cat Griffin clear off the bed. Stunned he looked up at her from the floor. She knew Sitri was a spirit who was capable of getting women to bare their hearts and soul to him and then he stole their hearts and powers and left them on the ground begging to die. The tears flooded out of her and Griffin leaped back up to her and nuzzled her to still her apprehensions. She had no idea why the tears gushed out of her, but she knew it was connected to that magnifying glass somehow. She got up and wrapped it in another layer, but this time in leather to block the negativity coming off of the magnifying glass.

The next day Melanie awoke with a feeling of dread and for the first time ever she did not want to open her silver box. She stayed in bed, in the dark and hoped it would not call to be opened. She tossed and turned and decided to give up and get up. She busied herself with making her bed, straightening her room, petting Griffin, feeding him, and anything else she could think up to avoid opening the box. Then she heard the silver box screech to summon her. The cry sounded so horrific. She rushed into her living room, and it felt as if the air was sucked out of it. She pushed herself forward to the box, opened the lid slowly, and the spirit of Sitri swirled around her. She knew the magnifying glass was malicious. She had a feeling about it. Now, from her favorite silver box, evil spilled into her living room trying to suffocate her. Melanie wondered if he was who the magnifying glass was for.

She didn’t know how to stop this evil from filling her lungs, but her mind raced as she thought of anything possible to stop it. Her mind went blank, and her body became weak. Just then her cat Griffin turned into a griffin with a snake-like tail, the head and wings of an eagle, and the body of a lion, and attacked the Sitri. Griffin was not going to let this thing attack his owner. He was here to protect her even if up until now she had no idea. The Griffin leaped at the mist but went right through it. Dazed and confused he tried again, but still nothing. He looked at the silver box, leaped at that, knocking it off the mantle and into the fireplace. The mist started to recede, his owner seemed to be breathing again, and the air seemed to fill the room once more. Both Melanie and Griffin looked at each other stunned.

Melanie collapsed to the floor and the Griffin went to her in one rapid leap. He stayed next to her, protecting her till she regained her strength. Hours later she tried to sit up and noticed Griffin observing her. All of a sudden, he spoke to her. He asked if she was ok. She did not appear surprised to hear his voice. She knew somewhere in her heart that he was her protector all along. He asked if she remembered anything from the past hours, she assured him it was currently morning and she had just come out to check the silver magic box. He watched her slowly stand and walk over to the silver box. She was mesmerized when she looked down and saw it burning. Her heart broke. It was burning with what seemed to be a swirl of mist around it. She started to search for something to pull it out of the fire, but her griffin turned back into a cat and demanded to be pet. Meowing and meowing until she came to him and scratched his ears.

He might not always be around to protect her. He had been with her one thousand years already. He knew at this moment that she was his keeper for a while longer, but also, he was there to watch over her and keep evil from entering her home. He knew he was a powerful Griffin, but she, she was a magical influential witch. Together they would do immense magic in the world. They would protect each other. Melanie went to look for the magnifying glass and was thankful when she opened her dresser drawer and to her surprise it was gone. She did not like the energy that it gave off. She was not sure where it went. Griffin rubbed her leg and she picked him up to snuggle him. He too looked in the drawer and knew that the evil spirit took it. He did not tell her, but he knew. She had no idea how someone took it, but she was just happy to have it gone. They went to the couch together, snuggled, and watched the silver box burn.

Chapter 3

Once the swirl of the mist landed from the chaos there was clearly a layer of soot that needed to be cleaned up. There were piles in front of the stone fireplace. There was ash on every surface in the room. Melanie looked next to the mantle where she kept her broom, but it had removed itself. She knew it feared being burned up by all the embers in the fireplace while the silver box burned. It clearly was nowhere to be found. She knew not to even go hunting for her broom. Its fear was too great, so she tried to summon it to her. She could feel it pulling and its hesitation in coming to her side. She quieted her mind, told the broom in her mind that all was calm, this time her pull was stronger, and it came to her hand. The broom seemed to be trembling in her hands; she held it gently, soothing it in her mind. The broom almost seemed to lean into her asking if all was going to be okay now. Quietly and calmly, she began to sweep the soot into the fireplace, but the broom’s bristles seemed to leave