Michelle Mazerolle

"Nana, I'm home!" Michelle entered the old house she shared with her grandmother and smiled. It smelled like spices and flowers. "What are you cooking?"

"Just drying some flowers, and making gingerbread cookies for the little monsters come to visit me tomorrow." Her grandmother entered carrying a bouquet of dried roses. "How was school?"

"As usual Nana." Michelle began to climb the long flight of stairs. "I'll help you ice the cookies as soon as I'm finished my homework."

"That's wonderful dear." Her grandmother returned to the large living room that was by now covered in drying and dying flowers. "Be careful if you test the cards tonight dear…so close to All Hallow's Eve…they often lie."

"Yes Nana." Michelle was always amazed by her grandmother's ability to seemingly read her mind. She knew it was just because her emotions were written all over her face. The stairs creaked and the house seemed to sway. She knew it wasn't really swaying, but all the noises the house made sometimes creeped her out. The house was easily over 200 years old and had been in the Mazerolle family for as long as anyone could remember. At one point in time, all of Michelle's family lived with her, but now it was only Michelle and Nana in the three story building. Michelle's father had received a wonderful position at a business across the country and had been planning on moving the entire family there. Nana absolutely refused to leave the house she'd been born in and Michelle was heart-broken at the thought of leaving her friends. The result of a long discussion and a heated debate, it had been decided that Michelle could live with her grandmother in the big house, while the rest of her family travelled across the country.

Michelle never admitted it to her friends or family, but she wanted to stay in her hometown, with her grandmother, for more reasons than one. Her grandmother was a genuine Wicca, and she was more than willing to teach her granddaughter. Michelle's friends didn't know that their friend with the odd premonitions and hunches about things was really a result of tarot cards and her grandmother's advice. In the four years she'd been alone with her grandmother, Michelle had learned a lot. She knelt quickly at the small altar in the corner of her room, whispered a few words to the spirits, and started on her homework.

Her lack of procrastination didn't come from an eagerness for school, it came from her nana who stated that if her homework wasn't finished, she wouldn't teach Michelle anything. An hour later Michelle descended the stairs, crystal talisman around her neck. "I'm finished Nana."

"And the cookies have just finished cooling." Her Nana smiled. "You start the icing and I'll find the candies."

"Yes Nana." Michelle grinned. She loved cooking, another talent her grandmother had taught her. She quickly grabbed some eggs from the fridge and some cream and sugar. She began beating the ingredients together as her grandmother began to set out bowls of chocolate chips, smarties, marishino cheries, cinamon hearts and gum drops.

As they decorated the cookies, they talked. About school, Michelle's friends, her recent dreams, the positions of the stars, why the cards liked tricking people around All Hallow's Eve. Michelle knew it was a waste to make all these cookies, children's parents made the kids throw them away, believing the old Mazerolle witch was trying to poison their kids. Michelle made sure all the cookies didn't go to waste by sampling a few. Her grandmother was an amazing cook. It was sad that the kids would miss them because of paranoid parents. Finally Michelle brought up the party. "Nana, would it be okay if I went out tomorrow?"

"Where?" Her grandmother asked, seeming to already know the answer.

"A party, down by the river." Michelle licked the icing spoon. "I know you don't like me staying out late, but I'll be with all my friends."

"You may go." Nana smiled.

"Did you know I was going to ask that?" Michelle couldn't help asking that sometimes.

"If not this year than next. You have seventeen years Michelle. I expected you to go out to a party sometime." Her Nana offered her one of the broken cookies.

Michelle gladly took it. "Mmmm…..Nana….I'm tempted to drop the try on the ground just so I can eat the broken ones."

The seventy-year old woman laughed. "I shall make an entire batch for you to ruin tomorrow."

"You're spoiling me rotten Nana." Michelle admitted. "Letting me go to this party no questions asked, feeding my gingerbread…"

"That's what grandmother's are for." Nana put her arm around Michelle's waist. "So what will you be attending this party as?"

"I don't know." She licked her fingers as she placed the last cookie in the tin. "Something…different. I want to shock my friends."

The grandmother smiled. "I thought as much. You always did like shocking people." The older woman laughed. "I remember the look on your father's face when you told him you were staying here with me. I thought he'd explode."

"I don't know why that surprised anyone. I said that I didn't want to move."

"You're so quiet Michelle. People expect you to be meek and small, letting your opinion be trampled by those that are bigger than you in voice, but your spirit is large granddaugher. You will do great things." Her Nana began collecting the dishes for washing.

"You have to say that." Michelle smiled, feeling comforted despite what she said. "You're my grandmother."

"No I don't." Nana smiled as she poured some homemade soap into the water. "I have to say that I love you. I have to say that I believe in you. I do not have to say that you will do great things unless I really believe it."

"Thanks Nana." Michelle kissed her grandmother's cheek. "Would you mind terribly if I used the cards anyways? I won't believe a word they tell me…I'm just interested to see what they do."

"Go ahead child, but be careful. Keep your crystal." Her grandmother began to wash the pans.

"Thanks again Nana." She headed up the old stairs, slightly scared that they would collapse. She always felt that way, but the stairs hadn't fallen yet. She entered her room and closed her door. She watched a crystal suncatcher in her window for a few seconds to centre her thoughts and clear her mind. She began to flip through the deck of tarot cards that her grandmother had given to her. The cards must have been at least as old as the house and had been passed down in the family for a long time. She didn't flip through them with any in particular purpose, heeding her grandmother's warning.

An hour later she descended the stairs, slightly tired and without any real answers. She found her grandmother crushing rose petals by candlelight. The only electricity in the old house was in the bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen. The rest of the time the two worked by candlelight. There was no tv's or any other technological device in the house and Michelle had a hard time explaining to her teachers that she didn’t own a computer. The teacher would ask what was wrong with her…she'd reply that her house was from the eighteenth century and so was the technology therein. The teachers would sigh and accept her neatly handwritten papers.

"See anything interesting coming?" Although Michelle had hardly made a move, her grandmother knew she was standing there. The crickity stairs gave everyone away.

"Nothing really." Michelle entered the kitchen and filled the kettle with water. "Would you like some tea?"

"Yes, please." Her grandmother continued her crushing. "What did you see?"

"Change. Nothing really clear. Something about dreams. But you yourself said the cards like to play tricks around Halloween." She put the kettle on the stove and joined her grandmother in the living room.

"Have you decided what you are going to the party as?" Her grandmother asked, adding some other spice to the rose petals.

"I was thinking something along the lines of a rock star. I have that guitar prop from the drama project last year…and it'd certainly shock them." Michelle sniffed at the spices arranged on the table.

"That would be interesting." Her Nana pretended she knew what a rock star was. She quickly continued her work.

"What are you making Nana? A spell of some sort?" Michelle ran her finger through a pile of cinnamon that had spilled on the coffee table.

Her grandmother smiled. "The kettle is boiling."

Michelle sighed and entered the kitchen. She quickly made two cups of tea, knowing how her grandmother liked her tea, and brought them back to the living room. "What are you making Nana?"

"Did you use the old tea leaves or the new stuff?"

"New stuff." Michelle grabbed the bowl away from her Nana. "You're avoiding the question. What are you making? It's a spell isn't it?"

Her grandmother smiled. "Potporri."

Michelle was having an odd dream. It involved dragons and an odd asteroid like place in the middle of nowhere…literally. She dreamt she flew on dragon-back through nothingness to an asteroid in the middle of nothing. The people there were all different…not normal, but they were friendly. Her friends surrounded her and she felt safe and happy. Good news was coming from this odd asteroid, good news for all of them. Unless the spirits were playing a Halloween joke.

She stretched as she walked down the stairs. "Good morning Nana." She knew the older woman was up, despite the early hour. Her grandmother grew up believing that all people should be up with the sun and even though she was over seventy, she kept her old habits.

"Good morning." Her grandmother set a bowl of homemade porridge in front of Michelle and another bowl in front of herself. "Any dreams?"

It was always the first question her grandmother asked. "I dreamt about an asteroid with dragons."

Her grandmother raised a brow as she poured cinnamon over her own porridge. "An asteroid with dragons?"

Michelle nodded as she began shovelling porridge into her mouth. "Weird huh?"

"Don't take the dream out of context. Maybe it's a straight vision." The older woman suggested.

"Dragons don't exist Nana." Michelle said. "Remember?"

"All sorts of things exist that you don't believe in." Her grandmother smiled secretively.

"Have you ever met a dragon Nana?" Michelle wasn't sure if she was serious or not.

"What could I say? Either way you'd think I was crazy."

"Right Nana. I'm going out to the mall. I want to get my hair done before tonight."

"Have a good time dear. Watch out for asteroids."

"I've never seen a real rock star, but I think you look very authentic." Her grandmother smiled at her as she was headed for the door.

"I hope so. Do you think the colour is noticeable?" The teen had had her hair cut and slightly coloured. She didn't really want a colour other than brown, and she most definitely wasn't as daring as Candy, but she did feel like she needed a change.

"Just noticeable enough." Her grandmother handed her her coat.

"Thanks." She stopped to examine herself in the mirror. "I hope they like it."

"It doesn't matter as long as you like it." Her grandmother opened the door to her, startling Sammy who'd been just about to lean on the horn. "Be careful dear. And never pass up a chance to meet something that doesn't exist."

With that odd advice, Michelle entered the car.

Off to the party...

Background from All Hallow's Eve Backgrounds.
Pictures from Evil Doll Dungeon.