Who: Cleo and open Where: The beach What: Protection When: Friday evening Rating: TBD Open: Yep Status: Ongoing
Cleo had wandered down to the beach barefoot. Quinn had put Evie down and grabbed the opportunity to sleep himself. Cleo’s nightmares had grown bad again, as between actual memories and the denizens of the spirit world they were bound to, and she was happy to let him rest. She’d left him a note so he knew where she was, but she had also left her phone in the apartment.
She set up. A candle in a mason jar so the flame wouldn’t go out, some sage for burning, and that magically replenishing bag of Trinidadian dirt. She’d have to get Quinn to ask her nan about that one of these days. In addition she bought an old teapot and a china cup and saucer, family heirlooms. Her nan would have had her drink a hallucinogenic brew, but Cleo had just bought a flask of green tea, brewed bitter, for ceremonies sake. In remembrance of Annabelle’s separate teachings, she carried a clear, crystal bell. She set all of this equipment down on a picnic blanket, beside some food and flowers. She would leave an offering, but she also came out of these rituals hungry.
If she had done this a few years ago, she’d never have chosen to come to the beach, but it’s importance to Quinn and the life of this place as a whole. The place they had officially welcomed Evie, and though not on this beach but on not one, but two others, the places they had married, beaches meant new things to her now. They were happy places and they could give her what she needed.
She was no longer afraid of the weakening of the veil between worlds. It could bring good as well as bad, perhaps her mother, or Quinn’s grandparents. But it could also present her with her father or Ty, who had died while trying to sell her to her own death. This ritual was simple. It would strengthen her ability to resist for a few days, but was not usable over the long term as it made her too tired to function.
She sat down on the blanket and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before she began the spell.