If You Wish Upon A Witch

"Corvin!" My heart slammed in my chest as the plate of rosebud snacks I was holding fell to the ground, clattering loudly, and drawing curious eyes on me immediately.

I recoiled into my own skin, staring with my mouth hung open in horror at my boyfriend, who had no absolute care for the world around him. His hands were tangled into a girl's hair, her back pressed against the lantern post behind the sweets stall, kissing passionately, and for one long second I just stood there like an idiot, waiting for my own eyes to correct themselves.

Are they—

He w-wasn't—

"C-Corvin..." My voice cracked, sounding thinner and smaller, nothing like the first. He pulled back slowly with a huge scowl on his face like I'd interrupted something.

"Anya," He said plainly and you could hear a hint of frustration in his voice.

The girl he was kissing pecked his cheek before slipping away into the crowd without a word, and I hated her a more for that— for how easily it took her ruin my life, while I stood frozen in the middle of the square with rose buds scattered around my shoes.

My eyes stung with unshed tears as I tried to blink them away, still in my state of shock. People were already turning to look, and I felt that prickling at the back of my neck, with dozens of eyes finding the spectacle.

I wanted to shrink into the cobblestones, wanted nothing more than anything in my life, to not be seen right now.

But I spoke anyway with a trembling voice, and an aching heart. "Who was she?"

Corvin sighed, like I was the one being unreasonable. "Does it matter?"

"Two years, Corvin. Two years I—" My throat closed around the rest of the words, silencing whatever I'd wanted to say.

Someone near the ale barrels laughed; a man I didn't recognize called out from the crowd, "Might as well tell her, mate," and Corvin's jaw tightened. It all felt like he'd been dared into something.

He looked at me then with clarity and disgust in his eyes, and in that moment, I knew that whatever had been holding his mouth shut was loose now.

"Fine. You want to know? I got bored, Anya." He said, loud enough for the whole square to hear; even the musicians near the fountain actually stopped playing.

"Two years of waiting for you to be anything more than a statue on my bed. A man has needs, you know!” He hissed, inching forward, his face getting tighter as he pointed his index finger behind him to the path the girl went, “She actually gives me what I ask for."

The square went pin-drop silent for a brief moment, before laughter rippled through the crowd; someone even snorted into their cup like this was all an elaborate scandal to behold.

"That's not—" I stuttered, hating how my voice made my hurt obvious. "That's not fair."

"Fair?!" Corvin laughed, the sound shattering my broken heart even more. "You want fair, Anya? I stayed with you for two years; that's being fair. Look at you, standing there without knowing what a man's touch feels like!”

More laughter echoed around us, and a pounding, hammering pain seared through me. I staggered backwards, the tears falling freely now. I should have turned around right then. I know that now. But some stupid, wrecked part of me kept reaching out, kept hoping he'd take it back if I just said the right words.

"P-please." The word left me in a broken whisper, and everything felt like someone was squeezing my heart off every drop of blood. "Corvin, please, don't do this here—"

"I already did it!" he spread his arms wide and smiled darkly, “This right here, Anya, is me telling you to grow the fuck up! Nobody wants a darn prude!”

That right there shattered what was left of me. It felt like the ground itself opened and swallowed me whole. A cold spreading numbness washed over me, I couldn’t even hear the crowd anymore, only white noises as I staggered away without realizing.

One second I was standing in the wreckage of two years, and the next my feet were moving, carrying me out past the lanterns and the stalls and every single face that had watched him take me apart in front of them.

Someone's laughter tore through the haze in my head, haunting, before it thinned into the noise of the festival closing back over itself, forgetting me already.

As if on cue, the sky opened up the moment I crossed onto the empty roads. Cold, immediate rain poured down heavily, soaking through my dress in seconds, and from the little distance I had crossed, I could hear them scrambling and running for shelter behind me.

I should too, but I didn't care anymore. I didn't turn back for a shawl or a friend or anywhere that made sense to go. I just kept walking, blind with my own tears, and an aching heart.

But I couldn't go home. Home still smelled like him; it still had his boots by the door, and his side of the bed still dented from this morning, before any of this, before I'd been stupid enough to believe today would be any different from every other day I'd loved him recklessly.

So I kept walking, streets upon streets I barely even recognized, until the streets disappeared completely. Then I paused, heaving heavily with shaky breaths, my hair looking like a wet blanket around my face.

Just then, two women ran past me under a shared cloak, laughing too loud for the storm, their voices drifting over their shoulders.

"...swear it, my mother saw the witch's door herself in the deep woods, somewhere around here," the tall one said excitedly. "One wish, that's all, before midnight or it's gone!"

"The witch of Grimwyld? Don't be foolish, no one's ever found her…"

Their laughter faded into the rain, leaving me all alone again.

Somewhere around here…

I chuckled bitterly at myself. A witch and a wish. As if wishing on anything had ever done me a bit of good.

It wouldn't harm trying. My subconscious suggested it but I ignored it completely. I don't know how long I walked after that, but it was long enough for the pain and hurt I felt to turn into anger.

And when I finally looked up, nothing around me looked familiar anymore.

I was lost.

The realization hit me colder than the rain, making me turn around in a slow circle, searching for any light or path that'd lead me back the way I'd come from, but nothing.

My heart climbed rapidly to my throat, drumming loudly in fear as I stared wide-eyed at the thick darkness before me, and that was when I saw it. Through the black tree trunks ahead, a single window with faint, glowing yellow light.

I squinted in the rain. Shelter!

Relief washed over the fear within me so fast it left me dizzy, and I was moving before I'd even decided to, mud sucking at my shoes, and branches catching into my sleeves. But the closer I got, the slower my feet moved.

It was a… shop? An actual shop, with a crooked sign and a warped door, standing alone in the middle of the woods, eerily.

My brows twisted, the Corvin incident folded at the back of my mind. No shop belonged this deep in the woods. What road even led to it?

I turned, my eyes searching around but found nothing again. Then my skin prickled— that same feeling of being watched from the square, but this was much colder now, like something was watching me from behind that glowing window and had been for a while.

The Grimwyld witch. My subconscious reminded me and I froze. The thought filtering into my mind along with an uneasy feeling, and I scoffed shakily. “Oh, don't be foolish,” I muttered to myself, before turning around, prepared to leave this creepy shop alone.

But then the rain increased, getting a whole lot windier than before, sending cold chills down my spine, and almost pushing me off my feet.

My teeth chattered, and I wrapped my arms around myself, every reasonable reason pointing behind me to the shop.

Whatever waited inside that shop couldn't be worse than freezing to death, right? I mean…

I turned back around and froze, my heart leaping out of my chest.

T-The light was gone. The light from the window was gone!

“I-Is s-someone in there?” I asked quietly, not even knowing what I was expecting, and I could hear the rapid beats of my heart. Just then the floorboard creaked quietly from inside and my eyes widened.

Someone was in there.

I inhaled shakily, mustering up the courage I needed, before stretching my trembling hand for the door. It creaked open into thick and complete darkness, swallowing everything.

I stood on the threshold, my breath stuck in my throat, with every instinct I had screaming at me to turn around and bolt.

But before I could do that, a scratchy feminine voice drifted out of the darkness.

"Welcome, Anya."

Then flames in the hearth flared to life on their own, and I found myself staring into the crooked, knowing smile of an old woman I had never met in my life.