Chapter 1 - Alone
Episode: -Lolah -
Prolog:
SCENE: Alone
Raindrops pattered on her black umbrella as a little gust of wind drove them harder.
Lolah pulled her trench coat tighter around herself. She hated funerals. They always seem to take place when it was cold and dreary. Today was not an exception.
… “ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless her and keep her, the Lord make his face to shine upon her and be gracious unto her, the Lord lift up his countenance upon her and give her peace. Amen.”
So ended the monotonous monologue of the preacher. It was official; Lolah was alone in the world, now. She had just buried her grandmother, Kayleigh O’Callaghan, the person that had raised her after her parents were killed in an accident when she was nine. Until that event, she had not been allowed to see her grandmother, much. Her mother did not much approve of her grandmother and did not want Lolah to be influenced by her. Lolah’s ‘Nana’ was a witch; a very powerful witch, in fact. Because she was the most powerful witch in her coven, she was also the high priestess of that coven. It being the largest coven in this part of the country. Witches occur along family lines. Usually, the first female child of the family matriarch will also be a witch, if the matriarch is a witch. At the death of her mother, the young witch will inherit her mother’s power and it will be combined with her own. So, each successive generation will be, incrementally, more powerful than the last. Lolah’s mother had been a witch, by birth, but shunned the mantle and refused to allow Lolah to be taught the art of the witch. Her mother had made her grandmother “bind” Lolah’s powers, because, even untrained, Lolah was going to be a powerful witch and that would be very dangerous, indeed. That, of course, ended when both of her parents were killed in an auto accident. Having no other close relatives, Lolah was taken in by her grandmother, who began to make up for lost time. Now, at twenty-two, Lolah was a year from graduating from the university and very well versed in the art of witchery. With Nana’s demise, she received a tremendous boost in her powers. If she decided to accept the position, she would, now, become the new high priestess of her Nana’s coven. Once she graduated, she had to decide what to do with herself. The trust fund that her parents left to her and the farm and thousands of acres Nana left to her, meant that she did not have to have a job for a very long time. She would continue the business of selling potions and powders to the residents of the area. That alone would pay most of the monthly bills. Still, she needed to think about living alone, so far from civilization. She was twenty-two and didn’t have a boyfriend. Hell, she didn’t have any friends, outside of school. She needed time to think these things through. She always loved the forest that made up most of the vast acreage of the farm. It had been a land grant to her great grandfather of 5800 acres; it was huge. It seemed like hiking the perimeter of her land would be a great way to find the solace she needed to consider her future. It would take two or three days, but she had the time.
