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Chapter One: Negative Energy

It was dark outside and the crickets were chirping. Me and a customer sat on my porch facing one another with our legs crossed. In between us sat a red candle which was unlit. Around the candle laid seven small stones, all about the same size, shape, and color. I had a small glass jar in my hands. There was nothing in the jar and the lid was already removed from it. I placed it gently between me and the candle, then held one hand out to my customer. She hesitated for a moment, then grasped it. Gross. Her hands were sweaty as hell.
        I pulled out a match, lit it, then held it to the wick of the candle. When it caught on fire, I blew the match out and laid it beside me. I grabbed one of the seven stones that was closest to me and gently moved it into the jar. The clink it made was loud and it made my customer flinch. She had never been to a witch before to help her with any problems and it was obvious she still was unnerved by it as well. The only reason why she was here now is because someone had finally convinced her to come. I wasn’t sure what problems she had in her life, but the moment she walked to my front door, I could almost smell all the negative energy radiating off of her. I was even generous enough to do this for free for her because of how bad it was. The only reason why I charged people is because my current job already pays me so little and it wouldn’t hurt to have a little extra side cash to help fund my college tuition.
        I grabbed the candle at the base to prevent burning myself and held it above the glass jar. My customer eyed it nervously as if it were about to bite her. It made me groan internally. People and their stupid stigmas about witchcraft were really annoying. The only reason why people have those stigmas about it is because all the media likes to do is focus on the negative side of things dealing with the few witches that do like to use it to wreak havoc. There’s a reason why witches like me exist now, and it’s because of them.
        In a soft voice, I chanted,” Candle’s flame burning bright, by your flame on this night, trap all evil, seal it well in each stone, make it remain, never to be lost again.”
        Her nervous eyes remained on the candle as I tipped it to the side and let a few drops of wax pour into the jar. Then I put the candle to the side and looked at her. I could already feel the negative energy fading away from her. We had to do the same steps over again six more times before the spell was complete. We were just waiting for the wax to cool down and harden in the jar before we continued with the ritual. It wouldn’t take that long, thankfully. I’ve done this ritual with people before so I had it memorized by heart now.
        We repeated the process another six times, grab a stone, place it in the jar, then hold the candle above the jar and chant the same thing, then pour a little wax into the jar, set the candle aside, and wait a minute or two before continuing. When we had finished that part of the ritual, I had placed the lid back on the jar and sealed it as tightly as possible. By now all of the negative energy she carried had disappeared and she even seemed calmer now. In the candle light, I could see her give me a small thankful smile.
        I let go of her sweaty hand and blew the candle out. I gathered the things used in the ritual and headed inside to put them up. She got up and followed me quietly, holding her hands in front of her as she did so.
        My house wasn’t large at all. The living room and the kitchen were connected, separated by a small half wall you could peer over. Down the very tiny hall was the bathroom and my bedroom. The laundry room wasn’t even a room. It was just a small indent in the wall the size of a closet with two doors in front of it that had the washer and dryer, and a shelf was above those where the laundry detergent was. I didn’t really need anything else, though.
        The customer waited in the living room with her small backpack, looking around my little home curiously. There was a massive bookshelf up against the wall across from my kitchen in the living room that held candles, crystals, jasmine, sage, incense, and all sorts of witchcraft related things. I glanced at it for a moment, then back to her.
        “This is a nice set up you have,” She said shyly.
        I leaned against the wall and shrugged once. “When you’ve been doing this for several years, you start to get a pretty decent set up going. I know higher ranked witches that have far more than what I have.” I passed the jar to her. She looked at it, then grabbed it and put it in her gray backpack in one swift movement, then zipped it shut. She looked back up to me with her hazel eyes and smiled again.
        “Thank you for being patient with me,” she said softly.
        I waved my hand once. “Don’t worry about it. You really needed it. There was so much negative coming off of you I had honestly thought you were a demon at first until you came through the door.”
        She blushed then murmured apologies.
        “Anyway, be sure to keep that jar in a safe and secure location where nobody will think to search for it. And make sure that location is dark, too. Don’t let the jar break or crack or anything, and don’t open it, either. That’ll just undo the entire spell.” I told her seriously.
        She nodded twice quickly, then put her hand in her front left pocket. She pulled out a gray wallet and started pulling out cash. I had told her already that it would be a free service tonight.
        “No, keep your money. This is on the house, from girl to girl.” I said wholeheartedly.
        She put her money back in the wallet and put the wallet back into her pocket. She pulled her backpack on and thanked me again before heading out of my tiny home and into the darkness of night. I sighed and plopped down on the sofa. That was my last appointment for the day, thankfully. I was free tomorrow so I could finish up some of my homework for my college classes, then do whatever I wanted after that. Finally, peace and silence to myself after a long week of hard work. Every occasion, someone would come in asking me for a love spell, which I hate doing. Most times I even turn them down due to the fact that love spells just take away the free will of the person they’re trying to get to fall in love with them. It was the same with the darker spells, too, such as revenge spells and break up spells or any type of spell that brought negative energy on another person. There were too many situations where I could catch the backlash for that spell being cast and I didn’t want to have to waste my resources on myself. And the fact that I didn’t want to be responsible for ruining someone else’s life, too. That wouldn’t be cool of me to do.

                                                                ~More to come later, feel free to comment and give feedback!~