Story - The Pentagram

A witch-themed story for Halloween, enjoy!

The Pentagram

By Paige Garland

Heather didn’t usually have guests over, but she wanted to adopt a black kitten from a local shelter, and an employee needed to come by to see that her house was livable. She walked through each room and made mental notes of what needed to be hidden. So far, she knew she had to hide her cauldron, cloak, potions, and wand. They were less likely to let her adopt a black kitten if they thought she was pretending to be a witch.

In truth, she wasn’t pretending at all. Heather was a witch, but of course most people did not believe that magic existed. Her eyes darted around her living room, and she spotted another thing she needed to hide: her hat. Then her eyes drifted across the room to her talisman.

She couldn’t remove it, or else demons could enter her house. However, it had an inverted pentagram on it and if the person from the animal shelter saw that, then they could get suspicious. She couldn’t leave anything around that seemed satanic, and this pentagram was about as bad as it could get. There was a satanic church in town and their sign had a pentagram on it, so those in town associated the symbol with the devil.

Heather did not practice satanism, nor did she worship the devil. The form of witchcraft she practiced did involve making a deal with him, but her soul didn’t belong to him and her life didn’t revolve around him. And she wanted no part in dealing with demons.

Heather’s coven did not practice much dark magic but to practice any at all required a deal with the devil. The deal was that they could practice dark magic only at certain times of the year and in return he could send demons to their homes during that time. If they met a demon, they would have to do its bidding.

The talisman concealed the magical energies in the house and thus the demons couldn’t trace the magic. It was risky to remove it, but it would only be for a few hours, and she wasn’t going to be practicing any magic in that time anyway. The energies would likely fade. Without thinking twice, Heather removed the talisman.

She put all of the items in a box and then heard a knock on the door. Her eyes darted to her watch, and she saw that it was still too early for the shelter appointment. She eyed the box as the person knocked again.

Warily, she approached the door. She opened it to find none other than a demon on the other side. He looked like a typical demon, with a tail, horns, bright red skin, and bat-like wings. Now that he was here, she had to do whatever he asked, otherwise she’d breach the deal.

“Hello there, I was just passing through and noticed your house is vibrant with magic. I have a favor to ask of you,” he said cheerily.

“I am at your disposal,” Heather answered, albeit unwilling.

“There’s someone whose soul I want, and I need you to help me make her murder someone so that I can take it. If you make poisons, why don’t you give her one so that she can use it on someone she doesn’t like. I’ll coax her into it. Probably the easiest way.”

“Isn’t there some other way you can get it? Why does it have to be murder?”

“Because I only get the souls of murderers. So, there’s no other way.”

“Well, I’m not doing that,” Heather said. The demon smirked.

“You have to, or else you’ll break your deal.” At this, Heather sighed. He was right. If she broke her deal, she could no longer practice magic. However, if she helped the demon, she would get kicked out of her coven and end up in the same situation.

Heather’s coven had orchestrated the deal, but they didn’t really honor it. They all had talismans so that they didn’t have to help any demons. It was a win for them and a complete loss for the devil, but he didn’t know that. And now, all options were a loss for Heather.

An idea struck her. It was a bad idea but since she was going to lose her magic anyway, she had nothing more to lose.

“Alright, wait here. Let me get you that poison,” she said and then shut the door behind her. She went to her box and took out her hat and cloak, hastily putting them on. Then she took out her wand.

Heather stomped back to the door, determined. She flung it open, pointed the wand out and yelled a spell that would be fatal to the recipient. Only afterward did she realize that the demon was no longer at the door, and a woman from the shelter was standing there. She stared at Heather, stunned, before falling backward. Heather knew there was nothing she could do to save her.

The demon reappeared and clapped his hands.

“You never would have thought it, but this was my plan all along. Your soul is now mine.”

As the shock faded, she realized she still had one more option. She raised the wand, pointed it at the demon, and repeated the spell. He fell to the ground, dead.

There was again something else she realized she could do. Heather ran back to the box and grabbed a tonic, then she ran back outside and poured it into the shelter worker’s mouth. She awoke and Heather told her she had fainted.

The shelter worker thanked Heather for helping her up but told her she was canceling the tour as she could not in good faith give her a black kitten, with her witchy attire.

The Pentagram

© Paige Garland, 2024

All rights reserved.