Chapter Text
They seemed to appear earlier every year.
A picture of an eye in a window of a store. Just one. Then various houses, usually after a child had drawn it out. Some were very complex, others just scribbles.
All were steeped in superstition. The various pictures of eyes around Paris had fascinated and unnerved Marinette since her youth. A standard part of the tradition leading up to Halloween: an eye to keep watch for if a witch passed by a business, a house, a museum. To let them know that they couldn't stay hidden in the shadows.
Marinette herself wasn't sure if she even believed in witches and magic. The idea of it seemed nice, just very impractical. She didn't know anyone who'd fit the description in real life, no one in her class without a doubt.
So Chloe's conversation with her best friend Sabrina caught her attention. She tried to stay firmly away from them both, as a peace had been reached of sorts, and hopefully a little bit of eavesdropping wouldn't affect it.
"I'm sure that it was a witch, Sabrina! Her makeup done up all dark and brooding, wearing all black-"
"Just because a person wears black doesn't make them a witch, Chloe."
She huffed in response. "Well. I guess. But she didn't speak French! She looked so clueless and when I asked if she wanted one of the free hotel maps all that came out was gibberish-"
"Again, not a sign a person is a witch."
At this Chloe was slightly fuming but knew Sabrina to be correct. "I hope she didn't curse me."
Sabrina playfully rolled her eyes. "Oh no, what a fate to befall you if she did."
After class had been let out, Marinette made her way home and thought about what she heard. A witch? It seemed impossible. Then again perhaps Chloe was exaggerating, she had been known to do that before. Talking it over with Alya also didn't help matters, seeing as her best friend was all-in with the possibility of such a thing being real.
"Imagine it, Marinette! Finding a witch!" she remembered Alya saying. "The scoop of a century! Not to mention maybe then people would stop doing that hunt."
Silently Marinette thought that if a witch actually got found the hunt would probably just get larger. After all, then they'd probably go after a witch's mother, and family...how horrible. Even if the whole thing is meant to be in "good fun", and not like in the old days where the witches were either drawn out of Paris or...worse. The family who was "found out" now would just face issues with the public.
She was glad that her parents didn't do anything with the tradition; no "eye" ever got put up on the windows of the Dupain-Cheng Bakery. Anyone who didn't take part may have been said to be "harbouring" witches, to give a safe ground. Of course it just came down to her parents not believing in superstition.
Then again, as Marinette came through the door into the bakery, perhaps it might have been true. A figure at the counter certainly gave the impression of being a witch. All dark clothing, the darkest black hair she'd ever seen, though curiously with a purple streak going through it...
...and the person was talking with her Maman. Politely, though in French that didn't sound completely natural.
As the girl left Marinette barely caught sight of her face. Half of the girl's face was hidden under a wave that crossed over one eye, and she mumbled something as she went past that Marinette couldn't catch.
But if she had it would have gone a long way to explaining why the other girl had a smile on her face when walking down the street upon leaving the bakery. The "eyes" were all watching her, but Juleka didn't care.
A place of safe harbour within this strange new city she'd found herself in.
All of the accusing eyes in the world couldn't dampen her mood.
As for the girl she'd just passed, there was a curiousness to her that Juleka just couldn't shake. Briefly she had heard her call out to the woman behind the counter as the door closed, enough to hear "Maman".
So she must live there.
Picking out a cookie, Juleka munched. More than enough reason to come back.