Everyone sat in the living room in silence, all exhausted. What had happened was certainly beyond draining.

Abigail and Linne sat on the ground, looking at the subject with worry.

Clera sat directly in front of the subject, her hands half-clenched but open in a personally significant way.

Taylor stood, staring at the subject, too unnerved to sit beside the others. He couldn’t do anything. He never could.

And Kait sat in the only chair, her head looking down and her body devoid of any energy. She’d done all she could, in the worst way possible. She couldn’t look them in the eyes.

And the subject, Hailey, laid on the couch, unconscious.

They had sat in silence for almost ten minutes, only moving to fetch tissues.

But, it had to be broken sometime, Taylor knew. “So...Do...you feel like explaining this?”

...They knew who he was talking to, though the guests were far less educated on how the only culprit in their scenario was Kait.

Kait knew it was her duty to explain, so she did. “This is my fault.”

“You don’t say,” Taylor said with an almost venomous aside, almost reminding them of his sister.

“I...didn’t mean to cast the spell.”

“Like back then.”

“Like back...then. Sort of...”

Clera turned her head towards Kait, barely repressing her anger, “What are you two talking about. What haven’t I heard.”

...

“Tell me,” Clera said with a subdued yet anger-soaked voice.

Kait crossed her arms, visibly shuttering as she moved, “I casted unconscious magic.”

The silence ebbed her to continue.

“But this time, it was different. She-she has an affinity for witchcraft.”

“Ok...and what’s your point?” Clera said.

“Unlike most other magics, witchcraft isn’t entirely dependent on the ritual to be used. A non-witch with an affinity can still unconsciously cast spells.”

“But you cast the spell, so where are you going with this?” Taylor said.

“Well, you should know that magic is fickle at the best of times...and that sometimes it can...glitch. When an uninitiated, someone who has an affinity for witchcraft but hasn’t done the awakening ritual, is close to an initiated for extended periods of time...they start to...sort-of initiate. We liked to call it ‘unnofficiation’...so long as they are unnoficiated, their emotions, memories, and dreams begin to muddle with nearby witches on occasion. Not only that...they become exceptionally vulnerable to spells.”

Clara’s face lost vigor, “So you’re saying...?”

“Well...” Kait tilted her head, “To put it simply, I accidentally cast a spell on her because something shook me really hard emotionally, and since our two emotions were in tune, something strange happened. So here we are.” She sighed. “Welcome to the wooorld of magic, where consistency is the biggest roadblock,” she said sarcastically.

“So, do you know what happened to her?” Clera said.

“Is she even still alive?” Taylor added.

“You haven’t seriously thought she might be dead this whole time, did you?”

“No, I’m not that stupid. I was more concerned if her soul had been displaced or something.”

“Well, she’s just asleep. And yes, it probably was displaced. All it takes to revive her is finding it...”

“I guess that’s better than dead.”

“She should be safe, so it is significantly better than dead.” Kait stood up and slowly crept towards Hailey, then kneeled beside Clera. “Can everyone get about...five feet away?”

“Yeah,” Taylor said.

“Got you,” Linne said.

“No problem,” Abigail said.

“What are you doing?” Clera said, more uncertain.

“I’m trying to learn what exactly happened.”

“Ok, then I’ll get out of your way.” she took a few steps back.

Kait breathed in then breathed out at a precise pace. Then, she placed her hands on Hailey’s stomach. For a few minutes, she remained perfectly still. Then, she spoke, “Can you get me a dream catcher?”

Taylor raised an eyebrow, “A dream catcher?”

“Do you have those in this era?”

“Oh, yeah, of course. We have one or two around the house.”

“Then get me one, please, Taylor.”

“Got it.” After a few minutes of frantic searching, Taylor returned with a tiny circle, with strings crisscrossing in a unique pattern in between and a feather dangling from the bottom. Essentially, a dream catcher. “Is this too small?”

Kait spoke soft and smiled warmly, “Yeah, that’s good. Thanks so much, Taylor.”

“Yeah, no problem at all.” He handed the dream-catcher to Kait.

“Now, this could take a while. Is that alright?”

The two girls shrugged, and Abigail spoke, “Hey, we ain’t going anywhere. There’s still three feet of snow out there.”

Clera sighed, “First, what are you doing?”

“Finding her soul by tracing it down as if her body is an anchor and her soul is a boat, and I’m finding the boat by climbing the chain...” Kait responded.

“I don’t have a clue how that works.”

“This is magic, not even I do, even if I tried to explain it.”

Taylor shrugged, “But I’m sure you can do it.”

“Do what?” Kait said questioningly.

“...Uhh, whatever you need to. Look, I’m just tryin’ to be supportive.”

“Well, thanks, I’ll try doing...something. One, two...” Kait placed her head on Hailey and clutched the dream-catcher. As she let herself be enveloped by the emotion of regret. Her spell was cast, and she fell asleep atop Hailey.