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It was a house on the corner of town, tall and mysterious. The high schoolers would go to it at night, dare each other to stand on the porch, touch the door, go inside.
None of them made it past the dying lawn.
It was summer, heat forming waves above the black asphalt streets. People walked the sidewalks, laughing with each other, hurrying home to their friends, family, and their AC. Someone watched from the window of the home, eyes glinting bitter green. The curtains covered up the window once more. The house was empty.
A room had been sectioned off, white paint smeared over the walls in symbols and patterns that would give a normal person a headache. Millie looked over them proudly, ears twitching as she added one last containment charm to the circle.
A groan of the wood flooring, the walls leaned in as if all the space in the room was being sucked towards the center. Candles flickered, shadows grew deep like pools in the corners of the room. She waited patiently even as the paint darkened into black and red, flaked off to join the dark swirling mass on the floor. The shadows moved like oil on water, slinking over the floorboards to mix with the darkness, until the room was clear of shadows.
The world stuttered for a moment. Millie wiped her eyes clear of leftover magic. A tall woman stood before her, draped in lacy robes. She had tall ears, fluffy white to match her eight tails. She smiled, reached out through the now broken barrier of the circle. She took Millie’s hand, pressed a gentle kiss to the back of it and purred, “Hello, honey.”
-.-.-
It was fall, and leaves fell like an orange blanket to cover the world. It was beginning to cool, the day of reckoning and spirits was near.
A house stood at the edge of town, tall and mysterious. It was cleaner now, painted a soft blue unlike its usual chipped beige. Teenagers gawked at it, tried to catch glimpses of the resident through the windows. It was residents, now, and Nina Kosaka was responsible.
“Do we really need to do this?” Millie asked, tail flicking in irritation as she watched Nina clean out the fridge of the various biohazards and budding bacterial civilizations that had made a home in it.
“Honey, if you want me to live with you, you have to clean your fucking house,” Nina sighed, smoothed Millie’s hair back from her forehead and kissed it.
Millie’s nose scrunched up but she accepted the touch all the same. It was nice, she thought. It was new. Nina was a rather touchy person, a luck fox that Millie summoned for company, on a whim. She still didn’t know how to feel about it except for that her herb drawer was ordered now (alphabetically by genus and species) and the house seemed brighter now.
“There we go,” Nina said with a clap and a grin, disposing the last of the fridge’s contents into a metal bin and immediately setting it on fire. Millie thought she heard something scream. “Now that’s done.”
Millie tried to smile at her. She saw Nina doing it a lot; imitated the curve of the lips, the baring of the teeth. Nina looked disturbed so she dropped it fast, returned to her signature smirk.
“Didn’t know I was going to get a luck fox and a maid in one,” Millie commented, looking about at the clean counters and sink, once stained with magical experiments and now looking like the day they had been installed.
“Oh darling, if you want a maid you should see me in one of those dresses,” Nina grinned, tilted Millie’s chin up with a clawed finger. “I look simply delectable.”
“I’ve never had fox before.” Millie deadpanned. Nina laughed.
It wasn’t enough. Nina was kind and amazing on her own, already beginning to thaw the thing that sat like a cold lump in Millie’s chest. But it wasn’t enough.
It was Halloween, the day of spirits, the borders between realms weaker than ever. The paint was reapplied, Nina watching Millie work with a strange stare that Millie didn’t know how to read. She decided to ignore it, splashed the bucket of pig’s blood over the floor even as Nina winced and muttered, “That’s going to stain.”
Once more, the windows rattled in their frames, the color of Millie’s hair and tail dripped off her like ink, floating bubbles in the air. The room smelled like copper and sulfur and burnt sugar. That didn’t seem right.
The world ground to a halt, blood splattered across the floor. A star winked out of the sky, a cold howling wind ran through the streets. A short humanoid, barefoot and hovering across the floorboards in the center of the room. Millie smirked, two summonings done, both worked like a charm. Then her smile fell as the creature collapsed on the ground, her wing snapping off like a tree branch in the wind, fading into a million particles of light.
-.-.-
Enna Alouette introduced herself as an angel. She was loud, reminded Millie a little bit of herself. Her wing was gone, she had said when she lay in bed weak and feverish. It was after her summoning, Millie sitting in a chair watching her, not speaking, because how exactly does one summon an angel with a demonic ritual?
Enna laughed at the stupidest things, told Millie jokes that made her tail puff out as the witch cackled in delight. She knew now why the spell summoned an angel instead of a demon.
“And I looked at his angry face, all red and huffing,” Enna said, story having gone on for hours now but Nina and Millie were still on the edges of their seats, sides aching from laughter. “He asked me,” She switched to an exaggeratedly deep voice, “Enna, where in the nine hells have you been? And I say,” Enna continued, voice normal, giggles already escaping her as she neared the punchline. “Your mom’s bed.”
Nina snorted, sipped at her wine as Millie cackled, fangs wicked little white needles, bared to the air. She couldn’t remember the last time she laughed like this. Maybe she never laughed in the first place.
“And then I got kicked out,” Enna finished, leaned back before standing abruptly with a hiss.
“You okay honey?” Nina asked, putting her wineglass down. She stood as well, took Enna’s hand in her own.
Millie watched her slender fingers wrap around Enna’s wrist, sipping at her own drink. She liked the look of them together for some reason. As if joy and jealousy formed some wanting thing in her that made her want to hold both their hands and lie on couches with them as they talked about stupid things.
Millie felt something wet on her neck, wiped it off and looked at her hand. Black ink that tingled with magic stained her fingers, Millie’s tail whipped at the horrible realization.
She hid her hand behind her back, refocused on Nina and Enna’s conversation.
“It’s just weird,” Enna was saying, rubbing the small of her back, opposite where her other wing was. “Like empty space.” She was quiet, Nina drew her in for a hug. “I miss it,” Enna whispered, and something in Millie cracked at her tone.
So Millie made plans, stole stained glass from a pawn shop instead of buying it because she thought it was funny. When Millie told Enna and Nina that, they both laughed. Millie felt the corners of her lips curl up in a smile. Both of them met it with their own.
Millie worked carefully, wrung blood out from her hands, inky magic from her tail. Every time she did that now, after the weird moment on the couch, something seemed to peel away from her, left her bare and open, a wound revealed to the light. Millie hated it. She wondered what would happen if she tore it all out of her.
The magic and blood formed the glue, the stained glass having come from a church, carried the strong bonds of faith within it. Millie always excelled at this sort of stuff, gracefully putting them together in the shape of Enna’s remaining wing.
“Didn’t expect this from you,” Nina said from the doorway. Smoke puffed out from her lips. Lemongrass and strawberry. Millie wondered if that was what Nina’s mouth would taste like.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Millie asked, holding the wing up to the light, testing its durability and deeming it satisfactory.
Nina blew a perfect circle, pink lips forming an ‘o’. Millie’s ears twitched. She buried the want deeper, six feet under wasn’t enough anymore.
“It means nothing honey.”
Millie handed the wing to Enna later that day, helped her attach it. Nina and Millie stood out on the porch and watched Enna fly again. Millie felt a little less empty. But she prepared all her ingredients one last time. And she knew it would be the last time, just as how she knew Enna and Nina fit into her like puzzle pieces, something meant to be.
-.-.-
It was winter now. Bitter cold made Millie’s breath smoky clouds in the air, like Nina’s pipe smoke.
“So you’re doing this again,” Enna said, wings fluttering at her sides.
Millie hummed in assent, sweeping the remains of the last ritual off the floor of the room before beginning to set up.
“Nina and I not enough for you?”
Millie thought she sounded a bit hurt but that couldn’t be right.
“No, someone is just missing,” Millie set the incense down, lit it with a snap of her fingers.
“That’s cryptic as fuck man, are we going to be some sacrifices to your great demon lord or something?” Enna joked. Millie didn’t say anything. The silence made Enna uneasy. “Oh fuck no, you’re not going to actually-”
“I’m not,” Millie laughed, turning around. Something roiled in her stomach, vile and horrible. “You’re distracting me right now.” It was a thinly veiled attempt to get Enna to leave.
“Alright, alright, babu,” Enna said, backing out of the doorway. She closed the door behind her. Millie waited to hear the creak of the stairs.
Millie retched, eyes screwed shut, something sticky and nauseatingly sweet on her tongue. She convulsed, her ears pinned flat against her head, liquid on her lips that burned on its way up.
It stopped. Millie’s body ached from the sudden movements. She opened her eyes.
Black ichor dripped from her mouth onto the floor. She heaved for air, fell back, ink dribbling from her hair down the back of her neck. A stain spread across the floor, pure magic bubbling and frothing.
Millie stood in a haze, pressed her ear to the door to make sure that Nina and Enna were downstairs. She crept over to the bathroom, spat what clung to her tongue down the drain. Poured water into her shaky hands, gargled, spat it out. She did it until the water ran clean.
Millie looked up at the mirror. Her forehead was pale and sweaty, black still staining her lips a bit. The ink was receding from her hair, and underneath Millie could see golden roots. She punched the mirror.
Millie completed the ritual in darkness, alone. The temperature dropped quickly. Millie’s teeth chattered and her still teary eyelashes froze over, the cold soothed her aching, bleeding knuckles. She screwed her eyes shut, kneeled and pressed her forehead to the floorboards. A soft hand rested on her head and in the cold, her heart melted.
-.-.-
Reimu Endou was dead. Her reaction was rather lackluster for someone who was just told that.
“Okay then,” She shrugged, squinting as she tried to see the room. “Can you turn on the fucking lights?”
Nina loved her immediately, drew her in close for a hug and kissed her cheek. Reimu reddened instantly; Nina had that effect on people.
“Geez, why didn’t I get a kiss?” Enna rolled her eyes, shooting finger guns at Reimu as a way of introduction. She yelped when Nina scooped her up to kiss her cheek, wings trembling even as she grinned widely.
“So I live here now?” Reimu said curiously, picking up a small wood carved cat from a table.
“If you want,” Millie said softly, fingers tap tapping on her knee nervously.
“I’d like to,” Reimu smiled, ran her thumb over a notch in the cat’s back. Millie felt something boil up in her chest again. “That sounds nice.”
“Yeah,” Millie choked out, Nina looking at her in concern as she hunched over. “That would be nice.”
Enna frowned and reached out to Millie but the witch was already running up the stairs to lock herself in her room.
She emerged hours later, looking as if she hadn’t slept in weeks, ribs showing through her sweat soaked shirt. In the crack underneath the door, a growing stain of black trickled out.
Millie tried to hide it, but she did a terrible job of it. She probably wanted it to be found out, so that Nina would cup her cheek and tell her it would be okay and that Enna would tell her a stupid joke and then Reimu would sing her one of the ghost’s favorite songs.
Reimu loved to sing. Millie found her on the roof one night, humming something to herself as she looked up at the moon. Nina and Enna were cooking something in the kitchen, laughing up a storm. Millie climbed up onto the roof tiles, moving shakily to sit next to Reimu. The ghost smiled at her, took her hand, and gave her a song.
Millie woke up on the ground in the living room, magic forming a film over her eyes, making her vision go silver and hazy. She tried to focus on Enna’s face above her.
“I need you to hold on to this for me baby,” Nina said patiently, handing Millie something. Millie’s fist closed around it, felt smooth wood. It was the carved cat.
She turned her head slowly, every movement sending pinpricks of pain down her spine and making her magic rise up again. Millie watched Nina work; the fox gathering up the magic from off the floor and into a little floating mass in front of her. Millie was struck with a wave of deja vu as she watched the surface of the magic ball ripple like an ocean.
“It’s okay,” Enna said, more panicked than Millie had ever heard her. She held on tightly to Millie’s other hand as Nina brought the ball closer to Millie. “You’re going to be okay.”
It leeched out of her slowly, like removing a bandaid. It hurt at first, her mouth open in a scream, ears pinned back as she cried. Millie felt her head get pillowed in someone’s lap, a cool hand on her forehead, Reimu was singing for her.
Enna kept on saying that she was going to be okay, wings brushing against Millie’s side like a lover’s touch. Millie didn’t know why she described it like that.
As the magic left her, the pain lessened. She felt lighter, her body’s aches draining away slowly. But something was in her now, and she could clearly without the magic covering it up.
She wasn’t alone anymore, but she once was. Millie curled up in a ball and cried, Enna’s arms wrapping around her as Reimu continued to pet her head, Nina’s fluffy tails poofing out as the fox drew her in to her chest.
And as Millie cried, chest lighter than it had been in years, tail, hair, and ears bright gold, a cat meowed.
-.-.-
It was spring, and the home was full. The lawn was green, the porch creaked under the weight of all the flower pots. A cat sat in the windowsill, black as sin, eyes mischievous and piercing every person who walked by.
The home looked like a home now, but still no one approached it.
“I like your hair like this,” Reimu said, floating over the back of the couch. She ran her fingers through Millie’s golden hair as the witch nuzzled into Nina’s side like a sleepy cat. “It looks pretty.”
“I dunno,” Enna said with an appraising eye, looking up from where she sat on the floor. “She looked hotter before.”
“Shut up,” Millie mumbled, taking a piece of popcorn from Nina’s bowl and chucking it at Enna’s head.
“Please don’t throw food honey,” Nina said, scritching at Millie’s golden ears, smiled when her kitty’s tail wrapped around one of her own.
“Okay,” Millie said sleepily. Lucie jumped onto her chest, kneaded at her shirt and pricked her with his claws. “Why’d it have to be a cat?” Millie groaned, but she still petted him gently, small smile on her lips.
Lucie purred as he lay down, trapping Millie on the couch. And there was no place the witch would rather be than here.