Athena DeVries was sitting quietly on the floor in her room, studying some Wiccan text she'd found at the library. Nothing spectacular, just simple charms and divinations. Normally, she'd have her music cranked up. But today was different.
Today her big brother Dan was on his way home from college to visit. He went to school in the next state over, so it was hard for him to visit on a regular basis. That was probably part of the reason Athena had drifted toward the goth scene, and the occult. Although she'd never admit the reason, and she often toned down her appearance and attitude when Dan was home. Today her makeup was not quite as heavy, her clothes not quite as dark.
Dan had always protected her, given her confidence. When he left two years ago, she really didn't have anyone else to look up to. Sure, there were her parents, but they just couldn't relate to her problems. Magick was her new protector. She knew all kinds of spells to protect her from curses and other malicious spells. She had even charmed the pendant she always wore to alert her if anything was wrong with reality.
And as she sat there, the pendant around her neck grew warm. Athena stopped reading and looked down at the pendant. It had done this a couple of times earlier today, but she hadn't seen anything so she just figured it was her imagination. But there was no imagining it this time. The pendant grew even warmer- then it started to vibrate. For a full minute Athena felt the small crystal buzzing against her chest, then it suddenly stopped. But it was still quite warm.
"What the hell..." Athena grabbed one of her other books and quickly flipped through to find out what that meant. She didn't find much, just something about instability, and unexpected changes. Athena looked around the room. Everything was still as it should be. But the warmth against her chest warned her that something, somewhere had changed. And there could be more on the way.
Still poring through books, Athena heard a car in the driveway. Forgetting her problems for a moment, she bounded down the stairs and opened the front door to see Dan's car. She smiled, but only briefly, because when Dan stepped out of the car she realized that something was very wrong.
