“What happened to you?” Agnes muttered as she lazily slumped on her sofa in Westview. Her right hand absentmindedly caressed the remote, while her left held an ice-cold beer. Lately, she’d developed a taste for murder documentaries, and the news of the body found in the woods had piqued her interest.
Straining to read the description of the episode, Agnes leaned in. Unbeknownst to her, a dark entity cloaked in smoke sat directly in front of her, watching. As if drawn by the confused glint in Agnes’s blue eyes, the apparition leaned in too, bridging the gap between them—and planted a quick kiss on the parted lips of the unsuspecting woman.
“Rio, stop it. You are disgusting, do you know that?” an irritated voice boomed from the background, snapping the assailant back to reality.
“YOU are disgusting.” Rio rolled her eyes and reached out to touch Agnes’s cheek, but the woman stared blankly through her—oblivious to the desire and longing radiating from the Green Witch’s eyes.
“Seriously, Rio, leave her alone. You know you can’t break the spell like that.”
“Oh, really? Watch me, Scarlet Bitch.”
Wanda sighed. She crossed her arms and stared at Agnes. Tenderness swelled in her chest. Despite everything—the betrayal, the chaos—the disgraced witch still held a dear place in the Scarlet Witch’s heart. And while the spell she’d cast was powerful, Wanda truly believed it had done her good. It protected and shielded the purple witch from her enemies, made her invisible… especially from the insufferable being who’d been trying to molest her girl since the moment they arrived.
My girl. My good, good girl. Wanda thought as she unconsciously reached to gently pat Agnes’s hair, but with a flick of Rio’s hand, Wanda was hurled to the farthest corner of the room.
“Uh-oh. Not on my watch.” If looks could obliterate a soul to oblivion, Wanda would have gone to nothing right there and then.
“She needs to recognize me. Remember my name.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean she needs to feel you, does it? Back off, superstar.”
"....Years after the town made headlines for reasons no one could quite explain, it’s once again in the spotlight—this time, for the body of a red-haired woman in her early thirties, discovered deep in the woods."
The steady voice of the narrator burst from the TV, filling the room and pulling both Rio and
Wanda’s attention to Agnes—whose eyes were locked on the screen, listening, staring, trying to make sense of what happened.
Suddenly, Agnes stood and stretched her arms overhead.
“Booooooring!” she yelled in a singsong voice that made Rio chuckle.
“What is she doing? Where is she going? Oh Agnes, please—” Wanda pleaded uselessly, her arms outstretched as if trying to summon the bewitched woman back to her.
“Leave her be. And her name’s Agatha, you witch,” Rio spat. Her laughing eyes followed Agatha intently as she grabbed her little camera and wandered off toward Herb’s garden.
“She’ll remember. I know it.” Rio whispered—her voice low and steely with belief.
She drifted after Agatha, like smoke trailing flame.
Wanda watched them both disappear, a single question spinning through her like a curse that wouldn’t settle.
Should it really be her that Agnes should remember... or should it be the ominous cosmic being now following her good, good girl?