[Greqoh]

Abigail backed up against the wall as it came closer. Samuel was looking down at her grinning.

The lightning flashed outside, casting a white flash through the window which illuminated an unseen black figure that had been watching from the shadows. The small black cat opened it's mouth, showing it's long ivory fangs as a hateful wail arose from it's meek body.

Aleister shot between Abigail and the dog, and was angling his body sideways as the two began to circle one another. The huge dog seemed oddly cautious of the small Bombay. After a few seconds of intense staring the rottweiler lunged at Aleister with its powerful jaws.
Aliester quickly rolled away. As the dog turned to attack again Aleister's frail body began to change shape, growing large and powerful until he resembled a panther.

Samuel's dog began to back off, his bloodthirsty red eyes glowing brighter as Aleister backed him up.

"Control your pet, or I will," Samuel threatened.

"What is the meaning of this?" their father demanded.

Abigail clapped her hands and as the sleek black panther ran towards her, it jumped in the air. It quickly shrank in size, back to the tiny Bombay as it landed in her arms.
Aleister looked back at Samuel and his mutt and hissed.

"We have a big day tomorrow, and we don't want to disturb our guest. I don't want to hear any more from either of you," Malachi ordered his children.

Samuel grinned as he watched Abigail shut the door to her room.

#


The storm battered against the house all night. The lightning filled the sky with a dreadful phosphorescence that flashed and revealed horrible twisted shadows outside the home and in.

Despite the thunder, everyone was asleep...everyone except Abigail's grandmother who did not require sleep.
Her white blind eyes stared into space as she recalled the last night she saw Abigail's mother Diana.

Malachi had chosen Diana to be his bride based on her Scottish bloodline, which was very powerful and pure.
She was an extremely gifted healer, and pathetic in her ways of goodness. Her magick was based upon nature and works of karmic balance. Her naivety sickened Malachi.
His was the magick of ceremonial rituals, hermetic/qabalistic conjurations and evocations.
Diana had neither the interest nor the ability to perform them, merely being content to help the sick and speak in profound riddles about the beauty of "The One".

Malachi and Diana had a beautiful daughter with fiery red hair and a strong will. Malachi had wanted a boy, and was very angered at Diana. He accused her of using her magick to cheat him of a son.

As Malachi began to see the innate power the child had inside he began to grow ambitious. There were ways to take such power, and Diana knew that her husband was ambitious enough to do them. Malachi had planned on a ritual sacrifice of his wife, Diana, an offering to his chosen god Seth.

He would then be free to wait until such time that Abigail reached her maximum power. He had studied the ways in which he could strip that from her, thus adding her power to his own.

Diana, though quiet, was no fool. She saw into Malachi's dark heart. She knew the temptations of his chosen path, and knew he did not have the heart to resist them.

And so, on the eve before she was to be killed, Diana fled with her child. They never found her. Malachi's mother, herself a high adept, had spent years sending out curses and psychic attacks. Eventually, Diana grew sick and died.

When Malachi tracked his daughter down she was about to be killed by an angry mob of backwoods Christians who claimed that she had the devil in her. She had somehow taught herself how to use her mother's healing poppets to attack several girls who had angered her. She nearly killed one, breaking her neck.

Malachi barely got her out of the town. He looked at the young scared girl, seeing the potential evil inside her, and became very proud.

He took her home and introduced her to her step brother Samuel and her grandmother. They tried to teach her their arts...they piled books and diagrams in front of her, the works of John Dee, Eliphas Levi and some of Crowley's most important work. But she was too much like her mother. Unless she was greatly angered, she was weak and unsure of herself. She preferred instead to watch the clouds, the trees limbs dance in the wind. She would spend hours talking with her cat Aleister. Her power would be wasted.

Malachi's son Samuel was strong, but stupid. It was a cruel twist of fate that he would leave no magickal heir behind when he died. So Malachi decided to kill his daughter.
He and his mother spent years preparing and tomorrow night it would be done at last.

All Abigail's grandmother had to do now was to keep that troublesome wench Diana out of Abigail's dreams. She was sure that Diana had found some way to fortify her spirit body against the dispersion of death. She was always near waiting to save her precious daughter.

A wicked grin crept up on the blind old woman's face.
She had always hated Diana. Now Diana would learn the folly of her weakness.

#


Paul awoke just before noon. Abigail had been checking on him frequently. She was sitting across the room from him staring at him. She found him incredibly handsome and nice. She was never allowed to leave the town. Had Aleister not ran off, she would never have seen this strange young man.

As Paul's eyes opened Abigail brought him a glass of orange juice and some toast on a bed tray.

"Thank you, Abigail," he said as he began to eat.

"Call me Abey. That's what my other grandmother used to call me," she added.

"That's a very pretty name. I like that," Paul told her as he finished his underdone toast.

Abigail began to blush again, a shy smile creeping up her face. Paul asked if he could see her again.

"I'd like that very much, but my father doesn't allow me to have...any friends. He says that..." she began.

"That bike is not going anywhere," Samuel interrupted,
"I've been working on bikes for years. I can probably fix it if you want to wait."

Paul was shocked at the civility "No, I don't want to trouble you, really," he said.

"No, I was a jerk last night. It's no trouble just a few simple things, not much. It's the least I can do," he insisted.

"All right, thanks," Paul agreed as he got up from the bed.

Abigail stared strangely at her step brother. He never did anything for anyone. Her eyes squinted as she tried to figure out what he was up to.

"I'll take care of it.You just go along with my sister, keep her company. She doesn't get out enough," Samuel asked as he left.