Knock, knock, knock

Samantha, jumped out of her skin when she heard someone at her door. She had been reading a book and hadn’t been expecting anyone. Cautiously she walked over to it and looked through the peephole. Standing in the hallway were her two friends, Jasmine and Nicole.

“Come on Sammy, we know you’re in there are you going to let us in or what?”

Samantha didn’t reply as she undid all three locks and opened the door.

“You’re never going to guess what Nicole just bought!” Jasmine walked in the room excited. She paused for brief second as she sat down on Samantha’s couch. “A real magic book, can you believe it?” She sat back and made herself comfortable.

Samantha looked at Nicole, who had only just stepped in the door. “Hi Samantha,” she gave her friend a hug. “We don’t know it’s real Jasmine. It just looks real and the lady seemed rather convincing. Still I’m not sure I believed her.”

“Then why did you buy it then?” Jasmine retorted.

“Because you wouldn’t stop pestering me to get it,” Nicole shot back.

Samantha shut the door, locking just the main lock and entered the small kitchen and started making her friends some coffee as they continued to bicker. When she brought their drinks over, Nicole had the book on her coffee table.

It was a large brown book with leather bindings the front cover had a pattern of twisted thorns and branches and in the center of the cover it looked like there was a space for a gemstone, though it didn’t have one.

“So why bring the book here?” Samantha inquired. She had been friends with Jasmine and Nicole since the first semester of college but she was the third wheel in their relationship as their friendship went back to highschool. She didn’t do much with them, outside study groups and college functions.

“Because you live in this apparent by yourself,” Jasmine answered blunty. “Whereas Nicole and I have our parents and siblings to deal with if they found out about this.”

Samantha kneeled down at the coffee table and opened up the first page, as it didn’t seem to want to open up further. She read what it said and loosely translated it. “And you needed a third person to for the ritual to unlock the rest of the book,” Samantha observed.

“Yes there’s that too,” Nicole conceded. “This is why Jasmine thinks it’s real magic, because the rest of the book won’t open. I’m pretty sure the pages are glued shut and the thing is just an overpriced halloween decoration.”

Samantha read the inscription again. “Well it’s not asking for much, just a drop of blood from each of us, if it doesn’t work, no harm done. You can still use it for halloween.”

“And if it does work I get to turn Nicole into a frog,” Jasmine said with a cheeky grin.

“Eww, no way. Also I bought the book because you didn’t have the money,” she countered.

Samantha returned to the kitchen a grabbed a small knife, she approached the book holding out her hand and cut the palm of her hand. As blood came from the self inflicted wound she placed her hand on the page. Her hand felt like it was on fire and so she pulled it away. When she looked at her hand the cut was gone and now there was a brand.

‘Samantha Black’ her blood spelt out as it turned black and was absorbed into the page.

Nicole and Jasmine looked down at the page in disbelief. Either the book was magic or this was some elaborate prank set up by Samantha way ahead of time. Something they knew she wasn’t capable of.

Nicole was the next to grab the knife and she copied what Samantha did exactly.

‘Nicole White’

Finally Jasmine followed soon after.

‘Jasmine Brown’

Under their names new text appeared. It was long and complicated and after reading it a few more times Samantha think she understood.

“Okay from what I can tell, this book isn’t at full power, as it’s missing the gemstone at the front. So we only have a week before the magic fades. Each of our brands have given us a natural affinity for different kinds of spells. This means we can cast some of them without a ritual. My brand is for animals, Jasmine’s brand is for people and Nicole’s is for objects. Now place your branded hands on top of mine and touch the book again.”

As they placed their hand on the book again, they all felt a surge of power run through their bodies. Their brands glowed and when they pulled their hands away the pages were loose, giving them access to the entire book. They were witches now.

For the next few hours the witches browsed through the spell book, looking at what they were capable of. The first thing they looked at were their affinities and what they entailed. Samantha’s animal affinity meant that she could cast animal transformation spells a lot easier, this meant she could take on / give people their characteristics, physical or traits, sense an their intentions, read the minds of animals that were once human and could transform people into animals a lot easier. Jasmine’s affinity for people allowed her to read minds, cast body augmentations a lot easier, swap bodies, mind control and hypnotise people. Nicole’s affinity for objects allowed her to read everything about an object, casts hexes on items, turn people into objects and read the minds of people turned into objects. They could cast spells on each other too, however that always required a ritual as they were more resistant to magic.

“Jasmine got the best one,” Nicole complained not happy with her affinity.

Samantha wasn’t too happy with hers either, it didn’t leave her much room to cast the kinds of spells she wanted. All she could do that was beneficial for herself and others would be to enhance their sense of smell, sight or hearing. She couldn’t bring herself to do the crueler things.

“Actually that one isn’t bad Nicole, with that you should be able to tell the winning scratch-its, when the slot machine is going to give a payout and how much. Also hexing objects is pretty good, you could turn something into a charm or curse whoever uses it,” Samantha offered. This made Nicole happier with the affinity she had been given.

“Enough talking, I want to try one out,” Jasmine snatched the book, flipping through the pages until she found what she was looking for. “Ooh, body augmentation,” she said with glee. While this spell was in her affinity she wasn’t able to cast it on herself without a ritual. So she began drawing the runes on Samantha’s floor. She stepped inside and chanted the phrase.

Jasmine’s body began to morph instantly as her excess fat melted away, her skin was cleared of blemishes, her hair turned fire red as it grew to her waist and became curly. Her assets also grew bigger and began to stretch out her clothes. “Nicole a little help,” Jasmine ask as she struggled with her super tight jeans and a bra that was now too small.

Nicole rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers on her branded hand, making Jasmine’s cloths adjust to her new body.

“Thanks so much,” Jasmine said with gratitude before checking herself out. “Oh man this is so cool.”

“Isn’t your hair going to be a nightmare to maintain, with it that wild?” Nicole asked.

Jasmine shrugged her off. “That’s the best part, no maintenance required now, it feel light, doesn’t affect my body temperature and it’ll never get into my eyes. I have perfect hair now. Also that’s what you focus on, not these bad girls?” Jasmine drew attention to her chest.

“Well I’m glad you showed some restraint, they do look a bit too large for your current frame,” Nicole criticized.

“You’re just jealous,” Jasmine teased as she sat back down. She then gestured over to the rune. “So who’s next?”

Nicole stepped into the zone and cast the spell on herself as well but she wasn’t able to perform it as good as Jasmine could. She managed to wipe out her blemishes, and adjust her body weight a little bit, she grew her assets too, though only upgrading them a small amount. She kept her hair short but turned it black and straightened it out so there was no mess. However unlike Jasmine she wasn’t able to have it fully maintain itself.

The two of them then encouraged Samantha to cast the same spell, but she didn’t do much. She tidied up her hair, making it more rich and a brighter blond, she made her green eyes stand out more and removed the blemishes from her skin.

“Ah modest Sammy,” Jasmine taunted. “You didn’t want an upgrade?”

“She looks fine as she is, we don’t all need giant breasts and big asses,” Nicole defended Samantha. “Okay now that we’ve done that, it’s my turn. Give me your phones.”

Nicole took Jasmine and Samantha’s mobiles and drew a rune around them. “Okay this one needs all three of us, Follow my lead,” she instructed as she place her hands just outside the circle she made, the other witches did the same and then she started chanting the spell with them. “Okay so now our phones have unlimited data and as an added bonus we can now summon each other through our phones. That’s why we all needed to cast that spell, teleportation is a taxing spell and isn’t in any of our affinities.”

NIcole, took back her phone and then saw the time. “Oh wow that time has just gone by, I guess we better go. You’re okay if we leave the book here with you, Sam?”

“Of course, it’s safe in my care,’’ Samantha assured them as they went to leave.

She wasn’t sure what to make of this all, being a witch. The other seemed to liked it but Samantha wasn’t sure how she’d use this power while she had it. She couldn’t see herself using much of the affinity that she had been given so she decided to read the book more carefully. She spent all night reading the entire thing.

“No, this can’t be right,” Samantha gasped as she read the last page of the book. She had read it several times over to confirm her fears. Spilling her blood on the book had been a mistake. They now had the power it granted, which was limited. What it didn’t say at the start of the book was that the book would restore its magic, using the life force of those who had bound themselves to it. The witches signed away their lives without even knowing it. There was a glimmer of hope though. The final spell of the book explained how to restore its strength giving one of witches permanent power, only the others weren’t going to like it.

Samantha didn’t know what to do about this, she didn’t want to make the others panic or for the three of them to turn on each other over this. “Nicole and Jasmine can’t know about this, not yet anyway,” Samantha decided. She knew how to stop them from stumbling upon this information as well. She grabbed the knife from the coffee table and cut open the hand with her brand. She placed it on these pages and began to chant a spell. The text vanished from the book and the final pages sealed themselves.

Samantha screamed in pain as her brand felt it was like it was on fire and that sensation spread up her arm until her entire body felt like it was burning. The pain lasted an eternity and she thought it wasn’t going to stop. She heard someone banging on her door before it was kicked open by the building’s super. He rushed over to her aid and touched her skin, jumping back as his hand burnt on contact.

The pain finally subsided and Samantha was able to come to her senses. She looked around, seeing her apartment door busted open and a man she barely had any contact with looking at her fearfully. His attention was then drawn to the spell book and the runes Jasmine had drawn last night.

“I want you out of the building!” He yelled at Samantha. “You hear me? I want you out now!”

Samantha looked at him with an intense glare. “Fine, I’ll leave.” She said coldly as she grabbed her purse and the spellbook. “This place has a real nasty cockroach problem anyway,” she clicked her fingers.

She walked out into the hallway, squashing the disgusting insect on her way out. She didn’t even bother to look back.

To be continued....