“There’s no fucking way that’s how it’s actually spelled.” Waverly practically screamed at the board. 

“Are there even that many vowels in the game?” Piper, who was dressed as a maid with fins, started searching through the small bag holding all of the tiles.

I started laughing, not a “someone told a really clever joke referencing pop culture from twenty years ago” laugh, but the evil maniacal laughter you make when you’ve just played an impossible word that will crush the spirits of any opponent who lays their eyes upon such a masterpiece. 

“Onomatopoeia, sixteen points on its own, but I hit two double word scores. So, that’s thirty-two, twice. Bringing me a total of sixty-four points and my score up to…”

“Up to what the fuck is this game?” Sally, who I can only describe as, lazy catgirl due to the fact she only had cat ears on, stood up interrupting my smug victory. “I should’ve voted for spin the bottle, at least then I might be getting fucked in a fun way.” 

Normally, I would have been absolutely distraught by a girl getting up and storming away from me. But something was different about tonight. Playing my favorite board game, with a bunch of girls who just saw me as one of them. It was something I couldn’t quite describe. I kept thinking I should leave, but I wound up finding myself not wanting to.

The night seemed to become a  blur. I was meeting new people and finding out we had a lot of things in common. I had never been in such a place before. Everyone was so friendly and genuinely interested in me. And they all kept calling me Maya and referring to me as a girl. I was having some very complicated feelings. 

“The third one wasn’t as bad as some people say. The UI is a huge improvement from two.” Myself and Lilith were locked in a passionate discussion about the Borderlands game franchise and breaking down the improvements, setbacks, and where the story is going.

It was odd to me, no matter where I went or who I was with, I had never been so comfortable before. I was still a nervous wreck every time someone started talking to me, but I felt more comfortable continuing the conversation and not just fading into the background like I always have. Not to mention everyone else was so cool. Wendy even showed me something called a “screaming service” where there were monster themed sports and shows.

“October madness is such a huge event. The werewolves are absolutely stomping everyone in monsterball this year. They’re my favorite team, She pointed at the fluffy ears on her head. “The vampires really suck this year though.” 

 Sports was never really my thing, but Wendy seemed so excited about them it was hard not to at least appreciate her enthusiasm. Though it must’ve been hard for them to play in such realistic costumes. You would never have known from how quick they were moving across the court though. The ghost referee was a cute addition, they sure could do a lot with holograms these days. 

I made my way around the party, talking and mingling, but quickly realized I had made a mistake. For as great as I looked in the heels, my feet were not prepared for the prolonged wear. I not so gracefully plopped onto the couch and took off the shoes, giving my feet a much needed rest.

“Hey, girl, how’s it going?” Scarlett sat down next to me. 

“Oh, hi.” I still couldn’t quite place the feeling that shot through me whenever I was called a girl.

“I take it you’re having fun? You haven’t stopped smiling all night.” She giggled and leaned in closer to me.

Had I been smiling the whole time? I mean sure, I was having a blast and ironically felt like I actually belonged. But, was it that obvious? 

“I guess so yeah. I’ve never had this much fun at a party before.” 

“Awe, you’re so cute and adorable.” She edged even closer to me, I say closer, but she was practically on top of me. 

I froze, my body was lighting up in ways it never had before. The look in her eyes made me feel like prey again. I hated to admit it, but I kind of liked it. But the issue was she thought I was a girl. To think, a cute girl thinking I was a cute girl too, and all the places my mind took me about being a girl with another girl. I felt like I was floating again. 

“You know, I can think of a few ways you could have even more fun.” She placed her hand on my knee. “Tonight’s already gonna be magical, but, we could go upstairs, and I could personally show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” She very slowly started running her hand up my leg. “Only if you want.”

Was I dead, was I dying, was I having a stroke? I knew if I didn't stop her, her hand would end up stroking against something she probably wouldn't want.

“I-um, I-I, need to use the restroom.” I quickly stood up, halting her hands’ advance, straightened my dress, and made my way up the stairs.

I stopped once I was up and out of eyesight from anyone below, releasing the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding in. I sat down, my back against the wall, the feeling of cold drywall against the exposed skin of my shoulder blades was strangely comforting. I took deep breaths, trying to stop my heart from trying to reenact the chest exploder scene from Alien. I was a terrible person. I did this as a joke, and all these girls were so nice and welcoming, making me feel all sorts of things. But I wasn’t even supposed to be here. I just came in and chose trick instead of treat, now I was even being flirted with and being treated like a girl. I should’ve left as soon as I realized what was happening. Why was I always so awkward?

A frustrated Wendy from downstairs interrupted my spiraling.

“Damn it, Scarlett, you can’t always be so forward with these girls, you know how nervous they can be.”

“I don’t remember you complaining when I was part of your Awakening.”

“I...that’s not the point. We need to approach this with a little TLC.”

“I don’t think a girl group from the ’90s is gonna help here.”

“Listen, it’s getting close to midnight, for the ritual to work she needs to be willing and comfortable. It won’t work if you scare her off before we even get a chance to prep the spell.” Wendy seemed to be getting even more annoyed.

What were they talking about? Spell, ritual, scare her off? Was I the one they were talking about? 

“I wasn’t the one being so blatant with the magic! Luckily she’s so dense the portal hat didn’t even register as weird for her. I just thought maybe I could speed up the cracking so the coven could let loose and really party. Plus she’s cute and fun to fluster, sue me.”

Magic? Coven? There was no way they were being serious right? Magic and witches weren’t actually real. I mean yeah, some weird stuff had happened. There was the front door and out of body experience, the spider, the hat where things seemed to really disappear, and the comment about my costume being “on brand”...Fuck. I was at a party full of actual witches. That’s why they kept talking about some sort of surprise at the end of the night. They were planning on performing some sort of witch ritual, god that’s a tongue twister, try saying that five times fast. Some sort of Witchual? No that’s a stupid name for it, no one would ever say something like that. Damn it Maya focus! Fuck, I was even calling myself Maya in my own thoughts. 

Agh, why was this all so frustrating? I should’ve been scared, I should’ve run, climbed out the window, and just disappeared and never spoken of the night again. But I couldn’t deny the fact that even though I may have wandered into a coven of witches who were planning on using me in some sort of ritual, it was the best night I’d had in a long time. I had never felt so free and comfortable with myself around other people, much less other girls. Not to mention, I left my heels downstairs, and there was no way in hell I was leaving without them.

I took a deep breath, stood up, and made my way down the stairs, stopping at the end of the steps. Everyone stopped and looked at me, a bit of worry on each of their faces. 

Wendy turned around, “Hey Maya. Are you okay?”

“I...I heard everything. The magic, the ritual, the horribly outdated music reference.”

Wendy stepped forward, “Oh no, Maya I’m so sorry. It’s not what you think.”

“I take it you know I’m not supposed to be here. That my name isn’t really Maya. And that you know I’m not...not actually a g-gi…” I tried my hardest to say it, but the tears rolling down my cheeks and words catching in my throat didn’t want me to. Why couldn’t I say it? Why couldn’t I just admit the truth? Maybe I didn’t want it to be true. Maybe I had known for a long time that I didn’t want to be who I was, but I willfully ignored those feelings and chose not to see the signs, just like I chose not to see all the signs from tonight. Maybe I had done it, not as a joke, but to test the waters and see if my friend would accept me as a girl.

My body felt heavy, my feet were still aching and my mind was swirling down a pit of regret, embarrassment, and fear. I dropped to my knees unable to control my tears or the crushing weight in my chest. Wendy rushed over to me and wrapped her arms around me. 

“Listen, it’s okay. No one is going to hurt you or make you admit something that’s not true. I saw you at the front door, your soul, floating above your body. You can be yourself here. This is a safe place I promise. You can be Maya.” Wendy hugged me tighter as I continued to let all of my emotions spill out. 

After several embarrassing minutes of sobbing into Wendy’s chest, I started to calm down and collect my thoughts. I had never let myself really stop and let everything go. Years of holding back who I was, in an attempt to fit in with everyone else. But it always led to me fading away into the background, never really opening up out of fear people would reject me, the real me. But now, maybe I could finally be myself, and start working on who I want to be instead of who I thought I was expected to be. 

I unlatched myself from Wendy and wiped my tears. Everyone had gathered in the living room during my breakdown and were all patiently waiting. I apologized to Wendy, who looked at me with her huge, green eyes. She just smiled and took me over to the couch and sat down next to me.

“So, every Halloween there’s always a chance that someone like you, someone like all of us, gets the courage to dress up as a different gender and go out. We cast a lure spell each year and wait for someone to show up. The door is a way of knowing if they belong here or not. It separates you from your body, so we can see your soul. Sometimes people actually do get lost and we can just send them on their way. But usually, they end up being someone who belongs here. Like you. It all started a while ago when there were just a few of us. But we wanted to help people be comfortable in their own skin, and also, being a witch fucking rules. So when people like you show up, we spend the night affirming your gender and showing you how fun it can be to just let go and be yourself. Then at midnight, if you want, only if you want, we perform a ritual that will give you an affirming body to match your soul, and an offer to join our coven.”

“So, when you say someone like me and someone like you, you mean…”

“People who are transgender. I don’t know how you usually feel or act. But I’ll say tonight you seemed pretty happy. Plus you gave me a girl’s name at the door when you showed up.”

Oh yeah, I totally did do that. She was right, the night had been one of the best nights of my life. Everyone here was so sweet, and...like me. I hadn’t wanted to admit it before, because I was scared. But I wanted to be a girl, I was a girl, just like all of them, or most of them. I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to everyone but did hear someone going by She/They pronouns.

“You’re right. I think I did this tonight in hopes of testing things out and being accepted by a friend, and seeing what their reaction would be. I guess I’ve been building up to this for a while now, I was just too scared to admit it.”

I looked around at everyone, no one was judging, no one was laughing, they all just seemed to understand. I’d never been so open before, yet felt so comfortable doing so.

“Take some time and relax. We’ll start getting things ready, and if you want, we can do the ritual tonight. It won’t hurt, and you don’t owe anyone anything okay? The offer is open if you want to join our coven, and if not, that’s fine, we can still do the ritual. And, if you don’t wanna rush into things tonight, we can still do it some other time, it’s just easier on Halloween because the veil between mortal and magic realms is thinner.”

With that, Wendy got up and started getting things prepared with the other girls. I just sat and contemplated my entire existence and everything that had happened. She said I could wait, but I had stayed up so many nights wishing to just wake up as a girl, and clicked like on too many button memes about becoming a girl instantly to turn the opportunity down. I liked being Maya, I liked who I was as her, and yeah it wouldn’t solve all my social awkwardness and issues, but I could be a lot more comfortable being me.

Scarlett took a seat on the couch next to me once again, “Hey Maya. I’m really sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable and I apologize if I went too far.”

“No, I--liked it. I was just scared about you finding out who I really was and thought you might not like me If wasn’t a girl. Also, I’m not used to being flirted with.” I did my usual nervous looking down and trying to figure out what to do with my hands before just setting them on my lap.

Scarlett giggled, “Oh gosh no, I think you’re adorable. And maybe another night, when everything isn’t so awkward and new, I can show you that magical time I was talking about.” She winked at me and we sat there, talking about nothing important. It was nice to just have a casual conversation. I felt like I was going to learn a lot of things about myself hanging around this coven. 

After some time, moving furniture, lighting candles, and drawing a large circle with a pentagram in the middle, all the preparations were complete. I had told Wendy I wanted to do it, maybe a little too enthusiastically since she blushed and I realized my poor choice of words. But I meant it. I wanted to go through with the ritual, and I definitely wanted to see more magic.

I knelt in the middle of the circle as instructed and everyone took their places on the edges and began to chant. At first, I didn’t feel anything, for a second I thought maybe I was the victim of an elaborate prank. Until I felt everything becoming lighter, lifting and floating I found myself outside of my body once again. The weight of the world falling away from me as I hovered over everyone, I felt free. It was like I had been stuck, crushed by the pressure of the deepest depth of the ocean, suffocating, but now I was finally able to come up for air. The sweet relief of letting go, no worries, no bonds, just freedom to be me. The chanting became louder, and I felt the pull of my soul back to my physical self, this time it wasn’t a quick jolt, it was a slow, steady descent into body. I opened my eyes, the chanting was over, the spell was complete, and the weight I had been carrying was gone. I tried to stand up, but quickly found how wobbly and uncoordinated I was. Which was to be expected, now that I seemed a couple of inches shorter, my hair was in my eyes, and I had to account for the new weight on my chest, turns out my soul was pretty stacked. I was going to have a lot of fun.

I spent the rest of the night giggling and gushing about the changes and getting all sorts of tips from everyone about hair care, clothing sizes, and the abhorrent lack of pockets. There was so much to learn and keep track of but Wendy said she had a list of links and resources she could send me. Waverly demanded a rematch of scrabble the next chance we had, and Lilith gave me her online username so we could play together. But, unfortunately, the greatest Halloween party I had ever been to had to end, and everyone started to head home. Wendy told me we could start the coven initiation the following weekend and Scarlett handed me her number and growled at me, then left without saying anything else. I entered it into my phone and realized I had completely forgotten about Rachel and there were a lot of texts asking if I was okay and where I was. I was gonna have a lot of explaining to do. But I messaged her letting her know I was safe. The rest would have to wait for later.

I spent more time with Wendy, listening to her go on about more monsterball news and rankings and just genuinely enjoyed the company. I eventually realized I needed sleep and decided I should leave as well when Wendy stopped me at the door.

“Um, Maya?” She was looking up at me, biting her lip.

“Yeah? What’s up?” I had lost a couple of inches but was still a bit taller than her. 

“I was wondering if I could do something?” Why was she looking at me like that, her sweet puppy dog eyes just cut right through me.

“Sure, I mean, I feel like we’ve gone way past formalities at this point though. Plus, not to be weird, but you could make anyone do anything with that adorable look…” 

I was cut off by her grabbing hold of me and leaning in, sending me to another plane of existence with a sweet, passionate kiss. 

Being a witch was truly going to be magical.

RavenKane

Hi everyone, Happy Halloween! I hope you enjoyed this story, I had a lot of fun writing it. Thank you so much for reading and If you want, feel free to support me on patreon, the link is below.