Snippet #2789143

Ivy had been up for hours at this point as she locked herself in the herbalism classroom with music playing in order to take full advantage of Roman being too busy preparing for his Dark Baptism to one, pester her and two, be in the room so they had to share their workspace. Besides, with all the nerves from those around her, she felt the need to ‘recharge’ her charm so that everyone else didn’t shake her. Not to mention she was going to see her whole family together for the first time in a decade. The Bishops while somewhat infamous for their strong connection to the mortal world did produce some quite impressive children. All the Bishop children were held in high regards in their society with respected positions that required them to be all over the world and rarely leaving time to come back home even her mothers were coming back after spending years in the Vatican. That was enough to make her stomach twist and turn and make her stress levels rise when they told her. She needed to be at her absolute best, in every sense of the word from her appearance to her bright attitude being right as they left it. The small young witch took a deep breath as she pushed her hands back, pushing the curly strands of hair that had slipped out of her short ponytail from her scurrying around the room looking for everything she needed. “Okay.” She said softly as she checked off everything in her mind before looking at the time on her phone. Plenty of time. She climbed on a chair to grab a cauldron from high up before having it land with a bang on the table. Atlas meowed from the chair he was on, causing his owner to jump and almost lose her footing. “I locked the room down for a reason.” He always was the master of finding a way to slip in and out of places he shouldn’t be. Like master, like familiar. But, she didn’t need her familiar’s constant droning about how she was using the necklace as a security blanket, that it wasn’t healthy for her to keep all the bad and negative feelings locked away for so long, and of course, she should just let the darkness in. She had her mother, Ruthy for that. “I don’t have time for your critiques.”

“Not critiquing, just watching and reminding you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of what?” The snark and annoyance she tried to hide really were coming out quicker than usual. “Gloves, unless you want those pretty hands to rot off.” She softly groaned before making a pair appear in her hands. The girl hopped down, her small heels hitting the ground with a loud clack. She glanced at her phone once more to see that her mother, Ruthy had texted her telling her how she couldn’t wait to see her. Everything needed to be perfect, not for her but for them. Ivy needed to prove to them she wasn’t just the baby ‘Ivy Leaf’ they watched sign her name in the Book of the Beast all those years ago. They needed to see that she was a mature, wise, and sophisticated young lady who knew how to take care of herself and stay out of trouble (no matter how true that was).

She was so busy going over all of this in her head, her stress making her brain go around and around that she didn’t even realize that she was almost done with her concoction. She silently cursed to herself before slowly unlatching her crescent necklace, staring at it for a moment, and softly tossing it in. She let it sit in the bubbling brew as she turned her attention to her phone to finally respond to her mother who at this point had texted her three more times and started reminiscing about Ivy’s Dark Baptism. Satan in Hell, it felt like just yesterday she had signed her own name in the Book of the Beast finally restoring the lost respect and honor to the Bishop name after the two Bishops before they decided to go down the Path of Light and left all traces of their past life, their family, friends, all of it behind them in order to live a mundane life as mortals. The eldest three of the children had already made a name for themselves in the Church when Ivy signed. She can still remember the excitement she felt, the buzzing of nerves and the knot in her stomach tightening as she walked towards Father Proctor, and of course, the overwhelming look of pride on her mothers’ face. They promised they never wanted to pressure Ivy into signing but, she still felt the need to make them proud at any costs. She knew and still does that they, like most of the coven believed if there was one person who wouldn’t sign it would be little Ivy Bishop and even if she did, she’d run off just like her mother. But it was never a question for her. After becoming a part of the Church, she wanted nothing more than committing herself to the Dark Lord for the remainder of her life. She had prepared for that moment since she was 18 and when it finally came it was nothing short of perfect. She still had a slight scar on her hand from where she was cut to remind her of that day. And now while the rest of the Bishop clan looked the same as they did once signing the Book of the Beast, Agatha was an aging old woman and her brothers, Fabian and Desmond have been long been buried. But that was just the guilt in her mind festering quickly without the effect of her spell.

She investigated the boiling cauldron in front of her, watching the gold chain of the necklace swirl around before turning her attention to the time. One minute too long and it could disappear before her eyes, one minute short and it’d be as ineffective as it was when she was a child. Atlas moved from his chair and on the table to next to his master who was still messing with her spell, twirling her hands in small circles as she recited the spell, she had long memorized, ending with a ‘poof’. She smirked towards the black cat as she put on her gloves and reached in for the necklace. After drying it off, she quickly clasped it shut around her neck. Perfect. With her spell done, she quickly did a spell to make the mess disappear as she looked at her reflection for what felt like the 100th time since walking in. She undid her ponytail, letting her short, curly locks fall and frame her face as she fixed her bangs and fixed the ruby red lipstick, she had gotten from Winnie just for the occasion. She looked completely different than she did most other days with a surprising amount of black and lace but, she looked great, nonetheless. With her slightly plunging, the lacey black dress barely sweeping across the floor with a pair of scarlet red heels peeking from underneath. She fit right in with not only the rest of the Church but within the Bishop family as well. “Ready for the festivities?” Ivy turned to Atlas and smiling before walking towards the doors with her familiar in tow.