Chapter 8

Keith parked at the corner and picked Sandy up for the coven meet. It would sort of be a Thanksgiving celebration too as the holiday was right around the corner. They were all told to bring an offering of some kind. Sandy made a loaf of bread in her bread machine. Keith had an apple pie in the back seat of the car. It smelled so good, like a bakery. They were both in fine spirits that night. She got into his car at the corner. Her husband asked her what she was up to now and she told him she and Rita were going to a psychic fair, then coming back to her house to eat their goodies and watch a horror flick. He was very upset about her going to a psychic fair. She told him she wouldn't get a reading but would just buy a few trinkets there, maybe a crystal or something or a few Christmas presents.

When they got a little further down the road, Keith leaned over and kissed her. "I've missed you." He said.

"And I've missed you too." she said and smiled at him.

She had on her long black velvet cape and a long black velvet dress and high black boots. It was a very chilly night and the meeting was being held in the back woods behind Rita and Rex's house. There were plans to have a bon fire. Someone was bringing a folding table where they'd set up the food and drink. Sandy had brought some candles and a pumpkin and some gourds and a bright orange paper tablecloth. It was going to be fun, cold, but fun! The fire would warm things up a little she suspected.

They reached the house and they carried their stuff with them down the long dirt path into the woods. Sandy had never been behind the house before and didn't realize how much land they owned. The path was quite long and the location was isolated with tall pine, maple and oak trees from other neighbors so no one would bother them. Almost everyone was there when they reached the clearing. Rex was lighting a small fire at the moment. And the women were setting out the food. Sandy set out the tablecloth, candles, pumpkin, gourds and the loaf of bread. Rita hugged her and thanked her for her offering. "Father will be so pleased with everything." she said. Someone had brought a couple bottles of red wine. There was a pumpkin pie, too and potato salad. And someone else brought an aluminum pan full of hot chicken wings. There was a big jug of apple cider and a tray of homemade gingerbread men. 'How appropriate.' Sandy smiled when she saw the hot wings. It would be a feast!

Rex spotted Sandy and Keith and rushed over to say hi. He hugged Sandy and kissed her and tried to cop a feel. Rita looked over. "Rex, give me a hand with this, will ya?" she said.

"Sure babe," he answered and let Sandy go.

It had been an option tonight to wear your ritual robe or not because of the cold. The ones who did could wear their clothes underneath because it was so cold. Sandy kept what she had on, her long dress and cape, both of velvet so she stayed pretty warm. Keith had on a sweater and black jeans under his robe. Rita wore a long dress under hers' as did the other women. Sandy felt like the odd man out because she was the only one who hadn't worn her robe. At least she was all in black. She had on her long black cloak and she did have on her silver pentagram.

Rex started out the ritual by offering The Dark Angel all the gifts the coven members brought. He did some incantations to summon Him and then someone turned on a portable CD player and the melodious strains of demonic music came wafting out. They all held hands and walked around the fire chanting "Hail Satan... Prince of Darkness," over and over again.

Then there was blood- letting again and it was mixed with the red wine and all took a sip. Then each person wrote either a wish for them selves or a curse to someone they felt did them harm or a thank you to Satan on a piece of paper and threw it into the fire one by one. They could read them out loud if they wanted to or keep them secret. With the magic of the entire coven backing them, there was a lot of power in the air that night.

Rita wrote a curse on her paper to be rid of Sandy. Rex wrote one for Sandy to desire him. Sandy wrote a thank you for bringing Keith into her life and then they were all tossed into the fire. Then later they all ate the Thanksgiving feast. Rex got the fire going really big. It was a huge bon fire. They all sat around on blankets, rocks and logs and talked and drank and stared into the flame as it burned. The air was quite warm now from the fire and it was still cool but comfortable.

Keith sat with Sandy and had his arm around her all night. They kissed a few times much to the dismay of Rex. His jealousy for Keith was getting very apparent and Rita was getting even more jealous of Sandy because of this. Rex was determined to pull them apart, he wanted to harm Keith somehow. It had been on his mind for a while. All week he had been working on new spells to do just that. While Rita was at work he would go down into the ritual chamber and work his black magic. He was consumed by his jealousy.

He had confided to another male member in the coven about this within the last week about his feelings for Lycanthia and his hatred now of Keith. He had always liked the kid before but now his feelings had changed. He felt he was losing control. He had always had such mind control over them all before. One day he took a scrap of cloth from one of Keith's shirts he had left behind at their house and he went into Rita's sewing room and fashioned a doll with the likeness of Keith. When he felt the resemblance was as accurate as could be, he took it into the sacred chamber and placed it onto the altar. He lit the candles and stuck pins into it with dark intentions towards him. Then he took the doll and set it on fire. "I will destroy him!" he called out and he blew the candles out and left the room. Then he went upstairs and watched the evening news.

The evening grew on now and there was dancing by the women, wild uninhibited dancing Very sexual in nature. Rita sashayed around Rex suggestively and the other two girls danced wildly for all the men. The chubby girl, Kathy walked slowly up to Lycanthia and took her hand and with a wicked smile on her face pulled her away from Keith. "Dance Lycanthia! Dance for the pleasure of the men here! And dance for Father Satan!" Rita and Gail smiled. They looked at Sandy and saw her unease. 'But it was something she'd just have to learn to like to do if she wanted to be one of them.' Rita thought.

Lycanthia had had a little wine and cider in her so she was feeling no pain. She did feel a little shy about having to go up in front of everyone like this. She listened to the beat of the music then tossed back her head. Her hood fell down revealing her long jet hair. She closed her eyes and started dancing slowly swaying her hips back and forth and moving her hands above her head. The men were mesmerized and the women were surprised. She past each man sitting near the fire and danced for them slowly, sensuously, her long cloak billowing with every move. When she made her way to where Rex was sitting near Rita she stopped and did a wild dance, it was almost violent in its intensity. She wanted to impart her feelings of rage towards him about Halloween night when he took her so shamelessly. Unfortunately her dance was only getting Rex hard with desire for her once again. Then the music ended and they all whistled and clapped and she walked back to Keith and sat down with a smile on her face.

The dance got Rita very jealous. She knew it probably wasn't Sandy's intention of turning Rex on with it but it did nonetheless.' Something had to be done!' She thought. 'Rex was hers and no one else could have him! Besides, was Rex so stupid he couldn't see how Sandy felt about Keith? He probably didn't care.' she surmised.

The fire burned down now and people started packing up their things and leaving. Everyone bid their dark farewells and left into the cold dark night. It was cloudy now with fog rolling in. It wasn't terribly late so Sandy and Keith decided to take a drive into an old cemetery that he had wanted to show her. They would park a block away and sneak into it on foot. They reached it at around midnight, took a blanket out of his trunk and hand in hand walked through the old dirt path and opened the old ornate black rod iron gate. It creaked loudly. And they walked passed the old gravestones and crosses, their shoes making a crunching sound on the gravel path.